Things About History I Learned from Mental_Floss

So, I'm reading The Mental Floss History of the World, and I figure since this is a list blog, I'll do this as a countdown.  Everytime I read a chapter, I'll write down a couple of cool things I learned from it.


Here's Mental_Floss's website. It's kind of the inspiration for this blog.

10 of History's Worst Maritime Disasters

I don’t really like ships that much. I mean, I think they’re kinda cool, but ever since I saw Titanic, I don’t think I’ll be getting on anything bigger than a small boat anytime soon. Pretty much ever since ships have been around, they’ve been sinking. This is a list of the top ten deadliest shipwrecks (so far). Although, I guess that isn’t really true, because I only included disasters that happened during peacetime, otherwise the list would include the Spanish Armada and the Sultana.

8 Olympic Tragedies

Last week, the Vancouver Olympic Games started, but was immediately turned sad, when we all learned about the death of a Georgian luger just a few hours before the opening ceremony.  So far, only two deaths have occured during official competition (both during summer games), but there have been many tragedies at other times during the games.

The Origins of Six Rock Band Names

This took a lot more research than I thought it would.  I've always wondered how a band decides what to call themselves.  If I had a band, I think I would go the R.E.M route.

10 Phrases (Possibly) Coined by Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a busy guy. I mean the man wrote, what, 38 plays and over 150 sonnets? Can you do that? Nah, me neither. It's really no surprise then that The Bard contributed so many words and phrases to the English language. Well, possibly contributed. Some of the phrases on this list might have been around before he wrote them, but usually he was the one who popularized it. Sometimes the phrase might have already been popular, but his was the first written account. Either way, All of these common sayings are credited to ol' Billy Shakespeare in some way.