History not in the Books: The most interesting historical figures and events you didn't study in
Godmother of Rock and Roll
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was known as the Godmother of Rock & Roll, and was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, according to Black Culture Connection.
She was born in Arkansas in 1914, and frequently performed as a child with her mother.
Through the 40s to the 60s, Tharpe and her skills of the newly-electric guitar changed music forever, first developing the classic sounds of rock music.
Though she may not be a modern household name, her work inspired many of America’s most famous musicians, including Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, according to Guitar World.
She is also credited with bringing gospel music into mainstream society in the 30s and 40s, performing in churches and secular clubs alike.
She toured until she died in 1973.
Pirate Queen of China
Ching Shih was a Chinese prostitute who eventually seized control of the infamous Red Flag Fleet, according to Ancient Origins.
She was born as Shil Xiang Gu in the Guangdong province of China in 1775, and eventually began work in a brothel in Canton under the name Ching Shih.
While there, commander Zhèng Yi of the Red Flag Fleet was struck by her beauty and wished to marry her, which she agreed to as long as she would have some power within his fleet.
He agreed, and they controlled the fleet together, until he died six years later.
Ching fought to keep her power, becoming sole pirate lord of the Red Flag Fleet.
She created new laws and taxes, and ruled the fleet strictly, becoming known for harsh punishments.
Chinese, Portuguese, and British naval ships all went against Ching, and all lost to her, leading to the Chinese government to offer amnesty to all pirates.
Chicago’s Murder Hotel
H. H. Holmes was one of America’s first serial killers, according to Biography, and was suspected of killing up to 200 people.
He lived in Chicago, where he built an elaborate three story building.
The top and bottom floors were rented out, but the middle floor contained numerous torture chambers where he murdered his victims.
These floors also contained trap doors to move the bodies to the basement, where he experimented on them, prepared them to be sold to medical schools, or burnt them in a kiln.
During the 1883 Columbian Exposition, Holmes opened the hotel, killing many of his customers.
He was eventually convicted of the murder of Benjamin Pitezel in 1896, and was executed May of that year.
However, many believe that he payed off the executioners to avoid death.
There has been no way to check, as his body was buried 10 feet under concrete, but it is currently being exhumed to see if Holmes really was brought to justice, or if he escaped it.
The First Casualty of the Civil War
Fort Sumter was built in 1829 In Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War in 1861, according to History.
The battle, which ended with the surrender or Union troops commanded by Maj. Robert Anderson to Confederate troops under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, only led to one casualty, according to the National Public Radio.
However, this casualty wasn’t even a result of the actual battle, but rather an accident on the part of the Union forces.
As the Union flag was lowered in surrender, soldiers honored it with a 100-gun salute, but one canon fired early and killed Pvt. Daniel Hough.
Though this technically wasn’t a battle death, it was the only casualty of the first battle of the Civil War, making Hough the first man to die in the Civil War.
Cambodian Landmine Hero
Cambodian native Aki Ra, real name Eoun Yeak, was a child soldier during the communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, a genocidal regime that caused the deaths of 1.5 million people in the 1970s, according to a profile article written by CNN. As a child soldier, he was taught to lay landmines, which he did for three years. After that, in the 1980s, the Vietnamese army overthrew his village, freeing him from the Khmer Rouge and immediately putting him to work laying landmines for them. An estimated total of four to six million landmines were planted in Cambodia during three decades of conflict, according to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority. The United Nations intervened in the early 90s to restore peace in Cambodia, and Aki Ra began to help them in their quest. So he started to undo the work he had been doing for the past 10 years, training with the UN to clear landmines. One year after he began work with the UN, Aki Ra began to clear mines by himself, using only a knife and a stick to get these deadly weapons out of the ground. In 2008, Aki Ra founded his own nonprofit devoted to clearing rural Cambodian villages of dangerous landmines.
Medical Benefits of Cannibalism
As recent as the 16th and 17th centuries, many wealthy Europeans were cannibals, according to Smithsonian.
Corpses, preserved or fresh, were common ingredients in medicine, said to cure anything from internal bleeding to epilepsy.
The practice was widely supported, as everyone, from royalty to priests to scientists, seemed perfectly okay with eating their ancestors.
Graverobbers were paid handsomely, venturing into Irish burial sites and Egyptian tombs to get ingredients.
The poor, who could not afford the “benefits” this expensive cannibalism gave, would often stand by at public executions to pay for a small cup of blood, which was said to contain the vitality of the body.
