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Archimedes of ancient

Archimedes

Archimedes Thoughtful by Fetti (1620)

When we think of the great scientists and mathematicians of the ancient world, who have contributed greatly to today's inventions and researches, who could forget Archimedes.
In the hearts and minds of scientists Archimedes occupies the same respectable position as Newton and Gauss. In his ancient Greek days he was known as the "the wise one," "the master" and "the great geometer". His works such as the "Death Ray" gained him popularity and fame that lasts till this day. He was one of the last great Greek mathematicians.

Biography

Archimedes was born in 287 B.C. in the port of Syracuse, Sicily in the colony of Magna Graecia. His father was Phidias, who was an astronomer about whom nothing is known. We derive this information about Archimedes from his work "The Sand Reckoner".
In those times, in the absence of paper or blackboards, Archimedes used dust, ashes or any other available surface to draw his geometric figures. He used to get so engrossed in his work that sometimes he forgot to eat. It is alleged that he drew figures on his body after bathing and applying olive oil. According to the Greek historian John Tzetzes, who was famous for his research on Byzantinne Greek era, Archimedes lived for 75 years.
Except for the period of his life where he attended school in Alexandria at Euclid's, Archimedes spent all his life at Syracuse. Ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, relates Archimedes to King Hiero II of Syracuse. He says Archimedes achieved so much fame because of his relation to King Hiero II and Gelon (son of King Hiero II). He was a close friend of Gelon and helped Hiero solve complex problem with extreme ease, utterly amazing his friend.
Archimedes died in 212 B.C. during the Second Punic war, when Syracuse was captured by the Roman forces after a two year siege.
According to Plutarch, Archimedes was researching a mathematical diagram, when a Roman soldier ordered him to meet General Marcus (who was engaged in the siege of Syracuse). But Archimedes declined saying that he had to finish his diagram. Furious, the Roman soldier killed Archimedes. General Marcus was angered by the death of Archimedes, because he didn't wish him any harm. Another popular theory regarding Archimedes' death is that he was killed while actually surrendering to the Romans.

Tomb of Archimedes

The tomb of Archimedes is famous for it depicts his famous diagram, a sphere in a cylinder of the exact height and diameter. Archimedes had earlier proved that the volume and surface area of the sphere would be two thirds that of the cylinder. In 75 B.C., 137 years after the death of Archimedes, it was Cicero who was responsible for giving respect and attention to Archimedes' tomb, which had been long neglected. Cicero had heard about the tomb of Archimedes, but it took him a long time to find it, as the local populace were unable to help. Ultimately he found it at the Agrigentine gate in Syracuse, covered in bushes. He cleaned up the tomb and gave it its due respect.

Discoveries and Inventions

Archimedes has many discoveries and inventions to his credit, but he considered his theoretical work as his main triumph. Along with his inventions in mathematics and geometry, he is also known for the weapons he created for King Hiero II to help protect Syracuse. He is credited with many inventions in the field of mathematics and physics such as "Death ray", "Archimedes claw", hydrostatics, calculus, etc.. Some of his discoveries are stated below:

Hydrostatics:

Today when we get any idea, we often shout the word 'Eureka'. This famous word is originally attributed to Archimedes, for the invention of measuring the volume of an object with an irregular shape. Once when Hiero had ordered a gold crown, he suspected that the crown was not made of pure gold but also silver. However, he could not prove this. He told Archimedes of his suspicion.
One day as Archimedes thoughts were revolving around the problem, he took a bath in his bathtub. He realized that the amount of water that overflowed the tub was proportional to the amount of his body that was submerged. At the realization he came shouting out of the bathtub "Eureka, Eureka" and ran out on to the streets of Syracuse completely naked.
In his work 'The Floating Bodies', this principle is known as the 'Archimedes Principle'. But the example of golden crown does not appear in any known works of Archimedes.

Principle of levers:

Although Archimedes did not invent the lever, he discovered the reasoning behind why it worked. It is said that he remarked, "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth." Plutarch explained how Archimedes designed the block and tackle pulley systems, allowing sailors to use the principle of leverage to lift objects that would otherwise have been too heavy to shift. It is also said that Archimedes built the Syracusia ship, which was the largest vessel of its time and capable of transporting 600 passengers. Since a ship of this size would leak a considerable amount of water through the hull, the Archimedes' screw was purportedly developed in order to remove the bilge water. The screw was a machine with a revolving screw shaped blade inside a cylinder. It was turned by hand, and could also be used to transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals.

Archimedes' claw:

Archimedes' claw was invented to defend the city of Syracuse. Known as the 'ship-shaker', it is shaped like a crane arm, from which a large metal hook was balanced. When the claw was dropped on an attacking ship, it would lift the ship by swinging the arm upwards and then sink the ship.

Death Ray:

There have bee n many doubts about Archimedes weapon of the death Ray. However in 2005 the Death Ray was proved and tested by a University class (MIT). Using over one hundred mirrors,they made a dummy profile of ship with 5 inch thick wood which ignited after focusing all the mirrors to a specific point on the ship. this experiment was then carried out again on a real boat in the water with the help of the 'mythbusters'.Thus proving Archimedes death ray as no longer a theory but a definitely possibility that this 'death ray' tactic was used against the roman ships in Syracuse.

Archimedes Death Ray: Testing with MythBusters

Mathematics:

Mostly known as inventor of mechanical devices, we cannot ignore Archimedes' contribution to Mathematics.
Being unhappy with the existing one, Archimedes is known to have invented his own Greek number system, so that he could accommodate more of his invented numbers.
According to some, the greatest invention of Archimedes is 'integral calculus'. Using this, he measured the section of areas surrounded by geometric figures. He broke the sections into a number of rectangles and then added the areas together. This principle is known as 'integration'. Also a part of the discovery of 'integral calculus' is 'differential calculus'. He calculated ways to approximate the slope of the tangent lines of his figures.
In the 'Measurement of Circle' Archimedes discovers the value of the square root of 3 as being more than 265/153 (approximately 1.732) and less than 1351/780 (approximately 1.7320512). The accurate value is rounded to 1.7320508076. He aquainted us with this principle without offering any explaination.
In 'The Quadrature of the Parabola', Archimedes proved that the area enclosed by a parabola and a straight line is 4/3 multiplied by the area of a triangle with equal base and height.
In 'The Sand Reckoner', he set out the impossible task of calculating the number of sand grains the universe could contain. He challenged that it was not impossible to do, even if sand grains were too large to be counted. His friend King Gelo thought this was hardly possible. To solve the problem of sand grains, Archimedes invented a system based around the myriad or uncountable in Greek. It also denoted 10,000 in the Greek number system. He fixed a number system using powers of myriads (100 million) and finally calculated the number of sand grains in the universe as 8x1063 .

Sites Referred:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
• http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/contents.html
• http://web01.shu.edu/projects/reals/history/archimed.html

• http://www.ancientgreece.com

Olympics

The Greeks invented athletic contests and held them in honour of their gods. The Isthmos game were staged every two years at the Isthmos of Corinth. The Pythian games took place every four years near Delphi. The most famous games held at Olympia, South- West of Greece, which took place every four years. The ancient Olympics seem to have begun in the early 700 BC, in honour of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the games and only Greek nationals could participate. One of the ancient wonders was a statue of Zeus at Olympia, made of gold and ivory by a Greek sculptor Pheidias. This was placed inside a Temple, although it was a towering 42 feet high.
The games at Olympia were greatly expanded from a one-day festival of athletics and wrestling to, in 472 BC, five days with many events. The order of the events is not precisely known, but the first day of the festival was devoted to sacrifices. On the Middle Day of the festival 100 oxen were sacrificed in honor of a God. Athletes also often prayed and made small sacrifices themselves..
On the second day, the foot-race, the main event of the games, took place in the stadium, an oblong area enclosed by sloping banks of earth.
At Olympia there were 4 different types of races; The first was stadion, the oldest event of the Games, where runners sprinted for 1 stade, the length of the stadium(192m). The other races were a 2-stade race (384 m.), and a long-distance run which ranged from 7 to 24 stades (1,344 m. to 4,608 m.).The fourth type of race involved runners wearing full amor, which was 2-4 stade race (384 m. to 768 m.), used to build up speed and stamina for military purposes.
On other days, wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium, a combination of the two, were held. In wrestling, the aim was to throw the opponent to the ground three times, on either his hip, back or shoulder. In ancient Greek wrestling biting and genital holds were illegal.
Boxing became more and more brutal; at first the pugilists wound straps of soft leather over their fingers as a means of deadening the blows, but in later times hard leather, sometimes weighted with metal, was used. In the pancratium, the most rigorous of the sports, the contest continued until one or the other of the participants acknowledged defeat.
Horse-racing, in which each entrant owned his horse, was confined to the wealthy but was nevertheless a popular attraction. The course was 6 laps of the track, with separate races for whereupon the rider would have no stirrups. It was only wealthy people that could pay for such training, equipment, and feed of both the rider and the horses. So whichever horse won it was not the rider who was awarded the Olive wreath but the owner. There were also Chariot races, that consisted of both 2-horse and 4-horse chariot races, with separate races for chariots drawn by foals. There was also a race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 mules, which was 12 laps of the stadium track.


After the horse-racing came the pentathlon, a series of five events: sprinting, long-jumping, javelin-hurling, discus-throwing, and wrestling.
The ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength.
The discus was a circle shaped stone, iron, bronze, or lead. There were different sizes according to age groups. The javelin was a long wooden stick shape with spear head, similar height to that of a person. In the middle was bound a thong for a hurler's fingers to grip and guide to the correct angle it was thrown.
To Jump long distances athletes used lead or stone weights to increase the length of the jump. These weights were known as 'halteres' were held in front of the athlete during his ascent, and then swung behind his back and dropped during his descent to help propel him.

Ancient Greek cloth

Ancient Greek clothing was typically homemade and the same piece of homespun fabric that was used as a type of garment, or blanket. From Greek vase paintings and sculptures, we can tell that the fabrics were intensely colored and usually decorated with intricate designs.
Clothing for women and men consisted of two main garments-a tunic (either a peoples or chiton) and a cloak (himation). The peoples was a large rectangle of heavy fabric, usually wool, folded over along the upper edge so that the over fold (apoptygma) would reach to the waist. It was placed around the body and fastened at the shoulders with a pin or brooch. There were armholes were on each side, and the open side of the garment was either left that way, or pinned or sewn to form a seam.
The chiton was made of a much lighter material, normally linen. It was a very long and very wide rectangle of fabric sewn up at the sides, pinned or sewn at the shoulders, and usually girded around the waist. Often the chiton was wide enough to allow for sleeves that were fastened along the upper arms with pins or buttons. Both the peoples and chiton were floor-length garments that were usually long enough to be pulled over the belt, creating a pouch known as a kolpos. Under either garment, a woman might have worn a soft band, known as a strophion, around the mid-section of the body.
Men in ancient Greece customarily wore a chiton similar to the one worn by women, but knee-length or shorter. An exomis (a short chiton fastened on the left shoulder) was worn for exercise, horse riding, or hard labor. The himation (cloak) worn by both women and men was essentially a rectangular piece of heavy fabric, either woolen or linen. It was draped diagonally over one shoulder or symmetrically over both shoulders, like a stole.
Women sometimes wore an epiblema (shawl) over the peplos or chiton. Young men often wore a chlamys (short cloak) for riding. Greek men occasionally wore a broad-brimmed hat (petasos), and on rare occasions, Greek women donned a flat-brimmed one with a high peaked crown.
Footwear
Women and men wore sandals, slippers, soft shoes, or boots, although at home they usually went barefoot.

Ancient Greek Everyday Life

Men if they were not training in military, or discussing politics went to the Theater for entertainment. To watch dramas that they could relate to, including tragedies and comedies. These often involved current politics and gods in some form. It is thought that women were not allowed to watch theater or perform at the theater, although male actors did play women roles.
Farming and Food
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Olives were either picked by hand or knocked out of the tress with wooden sticks. Some were crushed in a press to produce olive oil and some eaten. This was an important product to the Greeks that had many uses including; cooking, lighting, beauty products and for athletic purposes. It is also believed that uprooting an olive tree was a criminal offence. The grain was usually harvest around October to ensure it would grow during the wettest season. A man drove the ox driven plough, as second man sowed the seeds behind. In Spring the Crops were harvested using curved knives (sickles). After harvesting the grain, it was then thrashed, using mules and the help of the wind to separate the chaff from the grain, the husks were then removed by pounding the grain with a pestle and mortar. 

Ancient Greeks usually ate bread (barley or wheat) and porridge, accompanied with food such as cheese, vegetables, fish, eggs and fruit. Animal such as deer, hare and boars were hunted only as addition to the food supply. Seasoning usually involved coriander and sesame seeds. Honey was probably the only sweetening that existed at the time, importance this is shown as the beehives were kept in terracotta

Ancient Greek Games

Lives of Women in Ancient Greece were closely tied to domestic work, spinning, weaving and other domestic duties. They were not involved in public life or in politics. The live were normally quite confined to the house although one public duty was acting as a priestess at a temple.
Children in ancient Greece usually occupied their time playing with toys and games.
The majority of Ancient Greek people made their living from farming. Citizens often had land outside the city which provided their income. The Greek landscape and climate was difficult to farm.
Grapes were usually picked around September and either kept for eating or made into wine. Making wine was done by treading and kept in jars to ferment. 
Ancient Greece

Greek boys played games like hockey, which were not part of the Olympic Games. The Ancient Greek boys usually played games naked, so girls were forbidden to watch. 
Ancient Greek women and girls were not expected to do much physical activity for recreation purposes. From this pot we can see a young girl, juggling three balls, but there is nothing to presume she was a performer, as she is dressed like an ordinary girl.

The Ancient Greeks also played games that did not involve much physical activity also, such as marbles, dice, checkers and knucklebones. Below is a famous vase from the Vatican museum depicting Achilles and Ajax playing 'Petteia' checkers. The Ancient Greek version of checkers was similar to what the current game of backgammon is where the Game backgammon is derived from. The Ancient Greek version of Checkers involved a board, stones and dice.

Disappearances in U.S. History

The advent of cutting-edge forensic technology and DNA analysis techniques has shed new light on many of the world’s most famous—and infamous—disappearances. Still, some of the most puzzling cases remain unsolved—and some of them intersect with prominent figures and significant events in American history. From Jimmy Hoffa to the settlers of the doomed Lost Colony, these chillingly inexplicable disappearances continue to befuddle scholars and pique the public’s curiosity.

1. Jimmy Hoffa

Corbis

On July 30, 1975, James Riddle Hoffa, one of the most influential American labor leaders of the 20th century, disappeared in Detroit, Michigan, never to be heard from again. Born in 1913 to a poor coal miner in Indiana, the charismatic Hoffa proved a natural leader from a very young age. While working for a Detroit grocery chain he organized a labor strike that got him noticed by the powerful Teamsters union. Hoffa rose through the organization’s ranks over the next few decades and in 1957 took over its presidency. A savvy political playmaker and tireless advocate for the downtrodden, he became wildly popular within the Teamsters and beyond.

And yet, for all the battles he fought and won on behalf of American workers, Hoffa also had a dark side. During Hoffa’s tenure, Teamster leaders partnered with the Mafia in racketeering, extortion and embezzlement. Hoffa himself had relationships with high-ranking mobsters and was the target of several government investigations throughout the 1960s. Convicted first of obstruction of justice and later of attempted bribery, Hoffa began a 13-year prison sentence in March 1957. President Richard Nixon commuted the sentence in 1971, and Hoffa quickly began making a comeback within the Teamster leadership and penning his autobiography. These plans screeched to a halt, however, on July 30, 1975, when Hoffa was last seen in the parking lot of a Detroit restaurant, not far from where he got his start as a labor organizer. Though many have speculated that he was the victim of a Mafia hit, conclusive evidence was never found, and Hoffa’s fate remains shrouded in mystery to this day. He was declared legally dead in 1982.

2. Amelia Earhart

Getty Images

Amelia Earhart’s daring round-the-world-flight was cut short when her Lockheed Electra disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on June 2, 1937. Within hours, rescue workers began scouring the area for signs of the famed aviator and her navigator, Fred Noonan. A living legend had vanished into thin air. In an official report, the U.S. government concluded that the two seasoned flyers, unable to locate their destination of Howland Island, ran out of fuel, crashed into the water and sank. Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

The question of why and where her plane went down, however, has never been put to rest. Indeed, in the seven decades since the Electra’s disappearance, a number of hypotheses have emerged. Some theorists, for instance, believe Earhart was actually a secret agent working for the U.S. government. They suggest that the plane crashed after its pilots intentionally deviated from their course to spy on Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific, or that Earhart and Noonan landed on one of them and were taken prisoner. Yet another theory holds that Earhart returned safely to the United States, changed her name and lived a long life in obscurity. Another widely held belief is that Earhart and Noonan touched down on a remote South Pacific island called Nikumaroro and died there some time later.

3. The Mary Celeste

On a wintry November morning in 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife Sarah, their 2-year-old daughter Sophia and a crew of seven set sail from New York Harbor on the Canadian-built brigantine Mary Celeste, bound for Genoa, Italy. Their journey quickly turned into one of history’s most chilling maritime mysteries. On December 4, some 600 miles west of Portugal, the helmsman of the merchant ship Dei Gratia spotted an odd sight through his spyglasses: a vessel with slightly torn sails that seemed to be careening out of control. The Dei Gratia’s captain, David Reed Morehouse, immediately identified the ship as the Mary Celeste; in a strange twist, he and Benjamin Briggs were old friends, and had dined together shortly before their respective departures from New York.

When a crew from the Dei Gratia boarded the Mary Celeste, almost everything was present and accounted for, from the cargo in the hold to the sewing machine in the captain’s cabin. Missing, however, were the ship’s only lifeboat—and all of its passengers. What happened to the Briggs family and the Mary Celeste’s crew members? Some have suggested that pirates kidnapped them, while others have speculated that a sudden waterspout washed them away. Over the years, the search for a true answer to the Mary Celeste puzzle has come to center on the ship’s cargo: barrels of industrial alcohol intended for fortifying Italian wines Industrial. Alcohol can emit highly potent fumes, which might have led the crew to fear an explosion and temporarily evacuate into the lifeboat. At that point, a gale could have swept the ship away, leaving its former passengers stranded and cementing the Mary Celeste’s reputation as the archetypal ghost ship.

4. The Lost Colony

In July 1587, roughly 115 English men, women and children landed on Roanoke Island, located off the coast of North Carolina in what is now Dare County. Less than a month after their arrival, the settlers welcomed the arrival of Virginia Dare, the first English baby born in the Americas. As tensions mounted between the colonists and local tribes, the fledgling town’s governor, John White, who was also Virginia’s grandfather, set sail for England to seek out help and supplies. When he returned three years later, the settlement was completely deserted and all of its inhabitants had vanished. The only clue they had left behind was a single word carved into a wooden post: “Croatan,” the name of a local—and friendly¬—Native American tribe.

This cryptic message has led some scholars to believe that the Croatans killed or kidnapped the colonists. Others have suggested that the settlers assimilated and intermarried with the Croatans or other Native Americans and moved farther inland. Another theory holds that Spanish troops wiped out the settlement, as they had done to the French colony of Fort Caroline earlier in the century. Until more concrete evidence emerges, historians will be left to speculate on the fate of Virginia Dare and the other members of America’s “Lost Colony.”

5. D.B. Cooper

On November 24, 1971, a man wearing a black raincoat, a dark suit and wraparound sunglasses took his seat on Northwest Orient Flight 305, scheduled to take off in Portland, Oregon, and arrive in Seattle, Washington. After takeoff, he handed a note to a flight attendant, who assumed he was hitting on her and placed it in her purse. He then told her he had a bomb in his briefcase and demanded $200,000, four parachutes and “no funny stuff.” The passenger identified himself as Dan Cooper, but thanks to a reporting error as the story was breaking he was forever immortalized as “D.B.” Cooper.

The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where authorities handed over the items and evacuated most of the passengers. Cooper then instructed the pilot to fly toward Mexico City at a low altitude and ordered the remaining crew into the cockpit. A short time later, he jumped out of the plane and into a raging thunderstorm. He was never seen or heard from again. Since his disappearance, the FBI has investigated and subsequently ruled out more than a thousand suspects; they agency now believes it is likely Cooper died in the fall. While his body has never been recovered, in 1980 an 8-year-old boy found a stack of nearly $5,880 of the ransom money in the sands along the north bank of the Columbia River, five miles from Vancouver, Washington.

6. Joseph Force Crater

Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The disappearance of New York Supreme Court judge Joseph Force Crater captured so much media attention that the phrase “pulling a Crater” briefly entered the public vernacular as a synonym for going AWOL. On August 6, 1930, the dapper 41-year-old left his office and dined with an acquaintance at a Manhattan chophouse. He was last seen walking down the street outside the restaurant. The massive investigation into his disappearance captivated the nation, earning Crater the title of “the missingest man in New York.” Crater was infamous for his shady dealings with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine and frequent dalliances with showgirls. In the days leading up to his disappearance, he had reportedly received a mysterious phone call and cashed two large personal checks. These details spawned rampant speculation that the judge had been a victim of foul play. He was declared legally dead in 1939.

In 2005, New York police revealed that new evidence had emerged in the case of the city’s missingest man. A woman who had died earlier that year had left a handwritten note in which she claimed that her husband and several other men, including a police officer, had murdered Crater and buried his body beneath a section of the Coney Island boardwalk. That site had been excavated during the construction of the New York Aquarium in the 1950s, long before technology existed to detect and identify human remains. As a result, the question of whether or not Judge Crater sleeps with the fishes remains a mystery.

collected  http://www.history.com/

10 Things You Didn’t Know About William Shakespeare By History.com Staff

Did you know that some people think England’s beloved Bard never existed? According to one longstanding theory the literary masterpieces attributed to Shakespeare were actually written by Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford. Find out more about this hypothesis and explore other interesting aspects of Shakespeare’s life and legacy.

Cobbe portrait of William Shakespeare

1. Shakespeare’s father held a lot of different jobs, and at one point got paid to drink beer.
The son of a tenant farmer, John Shakespeare was nothing if not upwardly mobile. He arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551 and began dabbling in various trades, selling leather goods, wool, malt and corn. In 1556 he was appointed the borough’s official “ale taster,” meaning he was responsible for inspecting bread and malt liquors. The next year he took another big step up the social ladder by marrying Mary Arden, the daughter of an aristocratic farmer who happened to be his father’s former boss. John later became a moneylender and held a series of municipal positions, serving for some time as the mayor of Stratford. In the 1570s he fell into debt and ran into legal problems for reasons that remain unclear.

2. Shakespeare married an older woman who was three months pregnant at the time.
In November 1582, 18-year-old William wed Anne Hathaway, a farmer’s daughter eight years his senior. Instead of the customary three times, the couple’s intention to marry was only announced at church once—evidence that the union was hastily arranged because of Anne’s eyebrow-raising condition. Six months after the wedding, the Shakespeares welcomed a daughter, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith followed in February 1585. Little is known about the relationship between William and Anne, besides that they often lived apart and he only bequeathed her his “second-best bed” in his will.

3. Shakespeare’s parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were.
Nobody knows for sure, but it’s quite likely that John and Mary Shakespeare never learned to read or write, as was often the case for people of their standing during the Elizabethan era. Some have argued that John’s civic duties would have required basic literacy, but in any event he always signed his name with a mark. William, on the other hand, attended Stratford’s local grammar school, where he mastered reading, writing and Latin. His wife and their two children who lived to adulthood, Susanna and Judith, are thought to have been illiterate, though Susanna could scrawl her signature.

4. Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592.
To the dismay of his biographers, Shakespeare disappears from the historical record between 1585, when his twins’ baptism was recorded, and 1592, when the playwright Robert Greene denounced him in a pamphlet as an “upstart crow.” The insult suggests he’d already made a name for himself on the London stage by then. What did the newly married father and future literary icon do during those seven “lost” years? Historians have speculated that he worked as a schoolteacher, studied law, traveled across continental Europe or joined an acting troupe that was passing through Stratford. According to one 17th-century account, he fled his hometown after poaching deer from a local politician’s estate.

5. Shakespeare’s plays feature the first written instances of hundreds of familiar terms.
William Shakespeare is believed to have influenced the English language more than any other writer in history, coining—or, at the very least, popularizing—terms and phrases that still regularly crop up in everyday conversation. Examples include the words “fashionable” (“Troilus and Cressida”), “sanctimonious” (“Measure for Measure”), “eyeball” (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) and “lackluster” (“As You Like It”); and the expressions “foregone conclusion” (“Othello”), “in a pickle” (“The Tempest”), “wild goose chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) and “one fell swoop” (“Macbeth”). He is also credited with inventing the given names Olivia, Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, which have become common over the years (as well as others, such as Nerissa and Titania, which have not).

6. We probably don’t spell Shakespeare’s name correctly—but, then again, neither did he.
Sources from William Shakespeare’s lifetime spell his last name in more than 80 different ways, ranging from “Shappere” to “Shaxberd.” In the handful of signatures that have survived, the Bard never spelled his own name “William Shakespeare,” using variations or abbreviations such as “Willm Shakp,” “Willm Shakspere” and “William Shakspeare” instead. However it’s spelled, Shakespeare is thought to derive from the Old English words “schakken” (“to brandish”) and “speer” (“spear”), and probably referred to a confrontational or argumentative person.

7. Shakespeare’s epitaph wards off would-be grave robbers with a curse.
William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52—not bad for an era when the average life expectancy ranged between 30 and 40 years. We may never know what killed him, although an acquaintance wrote that the Bard fell ill after a night of heavy drinking with fellow playwright Ben Jonson. Despite his swift demise, Shakespeare supposedly had the wherewithal to pen the epitaph over his tomb, which is located inside a Stratford church. Intended to thwart the numerous grave robbers who plundered England’s cemeteries at the time, the verse reads: “Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbeare, / To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones.” It must have done the trick, since Shakespeare’s remains have yet to be disturbed.

8. Shakespeare wore a gold hoop earring—or so we think.
Our notion of William Shakespeare’s appearance comes from several 17th-century portraits that may or may not have been painted while the Bard himself sat behind the canvas. In one of the most famous depictions, known as the Chandos portrait after its onetime owner, the subject has a full beard, a receding hairline, loosened shirt-ties and a shiny gold hoop dangling from his left ear. Even back in Shakespeare’s time, earrings on men were trendy hallmarks of a bohemian lifestyle, as evidenced by images of other Elizabethan artists. The fashion may have been inspired by sailors, who sported a single gold earring to cover funeral costs in case they died at sea.

9. North America’s 200 million starlings have Shakespeare to thank for their existence.
William Shakespeare’s works contain more than 600 references to various types of birds, from swans and doves to sparrows and turkeys. The starling—a lustrous songbird with a gift for mimicry, native to Europe and western Asia—makes just one appearance, in “Henry IV, Part 1.” In 1890 an American “bardolator” named Eugene Schiffelin decided to import every kind of bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s oeuvre but absent from the United States. As part of this project, he released two flocks of 60 starlings in New York’s Central Park. One hundred twenty years later, the highly adaptable species has taken over the skies, becoming invasive and driving some native birds to the brink of extinction.

10. Some people think Shakespeare was a fraud.
How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.

10 Famous Elephants

Although known for millennia by many of the peoples of Africa and Asia, elephants’ introduction to the classical West came around 331 B.C., when Alexander the Great encountered war elephants as his army swept from Persia into India. At the river Jhelum, in present-day Pakistan, Alexander defeated the Indian ruler Porus, who was said to have 100,000 war elephants in his army. Ever since, whether revered as a divine symbol of luck and wisdom, used as unique tools of diplomacy between leaders, deployed to intimidate opposing armies or put on display in the service of status or science, elephants have loomed large in the historical record. Check out 10 notable examples.

1. Pyrrhus’s Pachyderms

The elephants of Pyrrhus (Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

After Alexander, it became fashionable (if not always militarily expedient) for up-and-coming generals to field a few elephants in their armies. In 279 B.C., the Greek general Pyrrhus attempted to revive Alexander’s empire, invading southern Italy with a force that included 20 armed and armored elephants. Pyrrhus hoped his tuskers would terrify the defending Romans, but the beasts’ main effect was to block his own army’s advances through narrow streets. Pyrrhus also ran into the most common difficulty with war elephants: whenever the beasts panicked they often bolted, trampling his own army’s foot soldiers. Pyrrhus’ invasion was successful, but costly, spawning the term “Pyrrhic Victory”—the ancient historian Plutarch quotes him as quipping: “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”

2. Surus: Crossing the Alps with Hannibal

Hannibal crossing the Alps (Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest military leaders in history, the Carthaginian general Hannibal famously invaded Italy from the north in 218 B.C., crossing the Alps from Gaul with an army of foot-soldiers, cavalry and a handful of north African forest elephants, smaller than the Asian and African elephants familiar to today’s zoo-goers. Of the six elephants that survived the arduous mountain trek, five died the following winter. The sixth, a one-tusked elephant named Surus, became Hannibal’s mount and mobile viewing platform in the marshes of the Arno. Over the next 15 years, Hannibal won significant battles and occupied much of Italy, sometimes with reinforcement elephants shipped directly from Africa. In a 209 B.C. battle with the Roman consul Marcellus, Hannibal’s war elephants created havoc until the Romans managed to wound one, touching off a cascade of panic among the pachyderms.

3. Kandula: The Elephant Who Helped Unify Sri Lanka

Elephant wall at Ruwanwelisaya, Sri Lanka (Credit: JTB Photo/UIG via Getty Images)

Another famed ancient elephant was the trusty companion of King Dutugamunu, the second-century B.C. ruler of Sri Lanka, who famously defeated King Elara, his South Indian rival, to become ruler of the entire island of Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka). Captured in the forest around the time of Dutugamunu’s birth, the elephant Kandula grew up alongside the young prince. As the royal mount, he performed heroically in the siege of Vijitanagara (161 B.C.), returning to finish breaking down a fortified gate after recovering from having molten pitch poured on his back. According to the Mahavamsa, an ancient Buddhist chronicle, the king rushed to Kandula to administer a salve, exclaiming, “Dear Kandula, I’ll make you the lord of all Ceylon!” Later Kandula was Dutugamunu’s mount in his one-on-one combat when he defeated Elara (whose elephant’s name, Maha Pambata, means “big rock.”)

4. Mahmud: The Elephant Whose Arrival Marked Muhammad’s Birth

14th-century illustration of the rebuilding of the Kaaba in Mecca during the early 600s.

The first year of the Islamic calendar corresponds to A.D. 622, the year of the Hirja (the prophet Muhammad’s emigration from Mecca to Medina), but the prophet’s birth occurred 52 years earlier, in what is known in the Islamic world as the “Year of the Elephant”—so named because it was the year a Christian Yemeni ruler attempted (with one or more war elephants) to invade Mecca and destroy the Kaaba, the central shrine in Mecca that predated Islam. According to Islamic tradition, the lead elephant, prophetically named Mahmud, halted at the border of Mecca and refused to enter.

5. Abdul-Abbas: Charlemagne’s Elephant

12th-century depiction of a white war elephant

In A.D. 801, a Jewish trader named Isaac returned to Europe after a four-year mission to the Persian Empire and Africa. He had been sent by Charlemagne, the Frankish king who was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor, to procure an elephant from Haroun-al-Raschid, the Abbasid Caliph who would later be immortalized in many of the “Arabian Nights” stories. Known for making Baghdad a cosmopolitan center of religious and scientific study, Haroun sought friendly relations with Charlemagne in part to counterbalance two rival dynasties—the Byzantines in Greece and the Umayyads in Spain. The elephant, named Abdul-Abbas after the founder of the Abbasid empire, found a welcome home at Charlemagne’s court at Aix-la-Chapelle (today’s Aachen, Germany). Charlemagne took Abdul-Abbas to war with the Danes in 804, but the elephant steered clear of the fighting.

6. Henry III’s Elephant

Henry III's elephant (Credit: British Library/Robana via Getty Images)

Charlemagne was hardly the only Medieval European ruler to be the recipient of large-mammal diplomacy. Henry III, who ruled England from 1207 to 1272, was the recipient of several such gifts. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II sent him a camel, while the king of Norway gave a polar bear. But Henry’s biggest gift came from France’s Louis IX—an African elephant. Henry quickly dispatched the Sheriff of London to build, without delay, “one house of forty feet long and twenty feet deep, for our elephant.” Crowds flocked to see it, including the English chronicler and illustrator Matthew Paris, who made a remarkably detailed illustration of the beast. Sadly, after just two years as the toast of London, Henry’s elephant died, purportedly after having been given too much red wine to drink.

7. Hanno: Pope’s Pet, Artist’s Muse, and Critic’s Barb

Sketch of Hanno c. 1514.

In 1514 a grand procession, led by the Portuguese explorer Tristan de Cunha, wound its way into Rome. Its highlight was a white Indian elephant, covered in gold brocade and topped with a silver safe containing precious gifts. This was Hanno, sent by King Manuel I of Portugal as a gift to Pope Leo X. On cue, the trained animal knelt before the pontiff, and delighted onlookers by spraying them with a trunkful of water. Hanno was the centerpiece of Manuel’s strategy to win papal backing for Portugal’s claim to the newly discovered Spice Islands in present-day Indonesia—then the world’s sole source of mace and nutmeg. The strategy worked, and for several years Hanno made appearances at various Roman festivals. After the elephant died in 1516 at the age of seven, Leo commissioned the artist Raphael to create a memorial portrait of the beast (now lost). Leo’s devotion to Hanno provided fuel for the pope’s critics, including Martin Luther, describing Leo as “indolently catching flies while his pet elephant cavorted before him.”

8. Thomas Jefferson’s Mistaken Mammoth

Skeleton of giant mastodon excavated by Charles Willson Peale (Credit: Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

In 1801 pioneering American natural historian and museum-founder Charles Willson Peale asked President Jefferson for a federal grant to excavate a set of bones that had been uncovered in a tar pit near Newburgh, New York. Jefferson obliged, and Peale uncovered the first known full remains of a North American mastodon, a prehistoric cousin of the elephant and mammoth that went extinct 11,000 years ago. Misidentified as a mammoth, the skeleton of the 11-foot-tall animal was put on display at Peale’s Philadelphia museum. In 1804 Jefferson, who doubted that species could go extinct, instructed the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition to keep an eye out for any mammoths, living or dead, as they journeyed to the Pacific. In 1807 Jefferson commissioned William Clark to collect mammoth fossils from Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. Clark then forwarded set of bones to the White House, where Jefferson enthusiastically laid them out in the East Room.

9. Jumbo: The Elephant Who Became an Adjective

P.T. Barnum trading card featuring Jumbo (Credit: Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

Though it was never given to a king or president, the 19th’s century’s most famous pachyderm counted Queen Victoria as a devoted fan. Captured by a river in the spring of 1861 in what is now Mali, Jumbo was eventually taken, by way of a French zoo, to the London Zoological Society. There the bull elephant became a hugely popular attraction, ferrying a dozen children at a time around the garden. His name quickly became a synonym for anything gigantic. In 1882 the zoo set off a nationalist controversy after it agreed to sell Jumbo to the American entrepreneur and showman P.T. Barnum for $10,000. Donor campaigns, prayer vigils and Jumbo’s own dislike of shipping crates were ultimately unable to keep him on British soil. It took Barnum just two weeks of American circus ticket sales to recover the cost of Jumbo’s purchase and transport.

How big was jumbo? According to Barnum’s publicity, he stood 7 feet tall and weighed 7 tons. Jumbo was the star of the Barnum & Bailey Circus until 1885, when he was struck and killed in an Ontario rail-yard accident. In the years following Jumbo’s death, Barnum continued to make handsome profits exhibiting the elephant’s skeleton and taxidermic hide.

10. Lin Wang: World War II Veteran and National Symbol of Taiwan

In 1942 the Japanese invaded Burma, commandeering work elephants to build roads and fortifications. A year later, Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Expeditionary Forces captured 13 of the Japanese elephants, marching them to China along the Burma Road. After World War II’s end, the seven surviving elephants from that group were used to build war monuments. In 1947 three were taken to Taiwan. Three years later, there was only one surviving elephant. Nicknamed Lin Wang (“forest king”), the elephant was donated to the Taipei City Zoo in 1954, where he became a popular attraction. After his death in 2003 at the published age of 86 (few elephants live past 70), Lin Wang was made a posthumous citizen of Taipei

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The Fascinating Stories Behind 8 Famous Photos By Elizabeth Nix

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but not every picture tells the whole story. Find out the fascinating details behind some of the world’s most iconic images, from the flag-raising on Iwo Jima to Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue at a photographer to the day Elvis Presley met Richard Nixon at the White House.

1. “Migrant Mother,” 1936, California

Credit: Dorothea Lange

In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange shot this image of a destitute woman, 32-year-old Florence Owens, with an infant and two other of her seven children at a pea-pickers camp in Nipomo, California. Lange took the photo, which came to be called “Migrant Mother,” for a project commissioned by the New Deal’s Federal Resettlement Administration (later part of the Farm Security Administration) to document the plight of migrant agricultural workers. Her image of Owens soon was published in newspapers, prompting the government to deliver food aid to the Nipomo camp, where several thousand people were hungry and living in squalid conditions; however, by that point Owens and her family had moved on.

Lange’s photo became a defining image of the Great Depression, but the migrant mother’s identity remained a mystery to the public for decades because Lange hadn’t asked her name. In the late 1970s, a reporter tracked down Owens (whose last name was then Thompson), at her Modesto, California, home. Thompson was critical of Lange, who died in 1965, stating she felt exploited by the photo and wished it hadn’t been taken and also expressing regret she hadn’t made any money from it. Thompson died at age 80 in 1983. In 1998, a print of the image, signed by Lange, sold for $244,500 at auction.

2. “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,” 1945, Mt. Suribachi

Credit: Joe Rosenthal

On February 23, 1945, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal shot this photo of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising a U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. The battle, one of the bloodiest in Marine Corps history, began on February 19, 1945, when the Americans invaded the heavily fortified island; four days later, they seized it and planted a small flag atop Mt. Suribachi. However, later that same day, the flag was ordered replaced with a much larger one that could be seen by troops across the island and on ships offshore. Rosenthal’s photo shows this second raising of the Stars and Stripes. The combat photographer subsequently was accused of staging the dramatic picture, but he denied the charge and eyewitnesses backed him up. The widely reproduced photo became a powerful patriotic symbol and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and serve as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery.

Three of the Marines in the photo were killed in action on Iwo Jima (the battle didn’t officially end until March 26, 1945), while the three surviving flag-raisers were sent back to the U.S., where they were treated as heroes and appeared at rallies across the country to promote the sale of war bonds.

3. V-J Day celebration, 1945, New York City

Alfred Eisenstaedt's photo on display (Credit: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

Famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped this image of a sailor planting a celebratory kiss on a white-clad woman in the middle of New York City’s Times Square on August 14, 1945, when it was announced Japan had surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending World War II and his photo was published in “Life” magazine on August 27. Navy lens man Victor Jorgensen also happened to get a shot of the impromptu kiss, from a different (and less famous) angle. Neither photographer got a chance to ask the smooching pair their names (as Eisenstaedt later said of that day: “There were thousands of people milling around…everybody was kissing each other”), and in the years that followed, a number of men and several women came forward to claim they were the ones in the photos, which became symbolic of the excitement felt at the end of the war. A 2012 book, “The Kissing Sailor,” identified the couple as sailor George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer, a dental assistant who didn’t know Mendonsa at the time of his spontaneous smooch. However, other people have made credible claims that they were the lip-locked couple, and to date, the pair’s identity never has been definitively proven.

4. Albert Einstein, 1951, New Jersey

Credit: Arthur Sasse/AFP/Getty Images

On March 14, 1951, lens man Arthur Sasse captured this image of Einstein leaving a 72nd birthday celebration held in his honor in Princeton, New Jersey. At the time the photo was taken, Sasse had been attempting to get the Nobel Prize-winning physicist to smile, but instead he stuck out his tongue as he sat in the back seat of a car. As it turned out, Einstein liked the shot so much he had some prints made for himself.

The German-born Einstein, who became a U.S. citizen in 1940, died four years after Sasse snapped his famous photo. In 2009, an original print signed by the renowned scientist sold at auction for more than $74,000. In 1953, in the midst of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade, Einstein had given the print to outspoken journalist Howard K. Smith, with the inscription (translated from German): “This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein.” Einstein spoke out against McCarthyism, and historians have said the gesture in the photo and its inscription represent his spirit of non-conformity.

5. Che Guevara, 1960, Cuba

Credit: Alberto Korda

On March 5, 1960, Cuban fashion photographer turned photojournalist Alberto Korda took this image of the 31-year-old Marxist revolutionary at a memorial service in Havana for victims of a munitions ship, La Coubre, which had exploded in the city’s harbor the previous day. Fidel Castro quickly blamed the U.S. for the blast, which killed at least 75 people and injured several hundred others, although the exact cause never was determined. After the La Coubre memorial service, the newspaper Korda worked for, “Revolucion,” ran pictures of Castro and other dignitaries and rejected the photo of Guevara. The picture appeared in various publications in Cuba and Europe in the ensuing years but drew little notice. In 1967, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, a left-wing Italian publisher who was interested in Guevara, learned about the photo while on a visit to Cuba and was given a free copy by Korda. After the Argentine-born Guevara was captured and killed by soldiers in Bolivia later that same year, Feltrinelli distributed posters using Korda’s photo, dubbed “Guerrillero Heroico” (Heroic Guerilla), and the image soon spread around the world, becoming a symbol of revolution and youthful rebellion. It has since become one of the most widely reproduced images in history, showing up on everything from murals to beer bottles.

6. Lyndon Johnson, 1963, Air Force One

Credit: Cecil Stoughton

Two hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the nation’s 36th president aboard Air Force One at Dallas’ Love Field. Cecil Stoughton, a former Army photographer who had served as the official White House photographer since 1961 (the first person to hold the post), took the historic photo of Judge Sarah Hughes administering the oath of office to a solemn Johnson, flanked by his wife, a group of staffers and a stunned-looking Jaqueline Kennedy, still clad in the pink Chanel suit she was wearing when her husband was shot.

At the time of Kennedy’s assassination, Stoughton was riding several cars behind the president as part of his motorcade. Afterward, Stoughton went to Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy died, then raced to Love Field for Johnson’s swearing-in. Stoughton was the only photographer on the plane when Johnson was inaugurated and initially, when his camera malfunctioned, it appeared there wouldn’t be any photographic record. However, he quickly fixed the problem and was able to document the event. In a chaotic time for America, Stoughton’s photograph demonstrated the country still had continuity of government.

7. Richard Nixon & Elvis Presley, 1970, White House

On December 21, 1970, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll secretly met with the nation’s 37th president in the Oval Office, an event documented by White House photographer Ollie Atkins. The meeting came about after Presley showed up unannounced at the White House gates earlier that morning and dropped off a hand-written letter of introduction for the president stating he wanted to be of service to the country and suggesting he be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” to help fight America’s war on drugs. After the letter found its way into the hands of a Nixon aide, Presley was ushered in to meet the president that afternoon.

During the get-together, the entertainer reiterated his wish to be helpful to the president, shared his belief that the Beatles promoted anti-Americanism and said he’d been studying Communist brainwashing and the drug culture. Presley, who collected guns and police badges, then asked Nixon if he could get him a federal narcotics agent badge, a request that was granted later that day. Also at Presley’s request, his confab with the commander-in-chief was kept under wraps and the media didn’t learn about it until the following year. In 1977, the music legend, who never ended up working with the White House, died of heart failure, suspected to have been related to his abuse of prescription drugs.

8. “The Situation Room,” 2011, White House

Credit: Pete Souza

Taken on the afternoon of May 1, 2011, this image shows President Barack Obama and his national security team receiving updates about the top-secret Navy SEAL raid on the Pakistani compound of one of the most-wanted men in U.S. history, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At 11:35 ET that night, the president appeared on live TV to announce that the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks had been killed by the SEALs.

White House photographer Pete Souza snapped the photo after Obama and his senior aides had crowded into a small conference room in the West Wing’s Situation Room complex, where Brigadier General Marshall “Brad” Webb was monitoring the mission. When Obama entered the room, Webb offered the president his chair. However, as Obama told NBC News, “ I said, ‘You don’t worry about it. You just focus on what you’re doing. I’m sure we can find a chair and I’ll sit right next to him.’ And that’s how I ended up [on a] folding chair.” Obama later referred to the high-stakes raid, during which a SEAL helicopter crash-landed at bin Laden’s hideout, as the longest 40 minutes of his life, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she’d been concentrating so intensely while monitoring the raid that she hadn’t been aware the White House photographer was taking pictures.

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