This year I have talked to some wonderful historians on the podcast. Being a quiet Sunday night, I thought I would pick out and share ten killer facts from those conversations...

Thread:

(I stuck them all in an article here:
https://www.historyhit.com/amazing-historical-facts-dan-snow-learned-in-2020/)

The previous record for a vaccine to be developed & licensed was 4 years, (mumps vaccine which got licensed in 1967) Following the UK government approval of the Pfizer vaccine for Covid19 in early December 2020, that record is now just under 11 months.

Via the legend, Paul Offit

Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 criminalised knocking on a door & running away, flying kites, singing obscene ballads, sliding on ice. Technically these are still offences within the Metropolitan police area. Fines are up to £500.
Thank you, knower of the law @jhmccunn

Frank Snowden explained that the word “quarantine” comes from quarantena, meaning “forty days” in 14th century Venetian. The Venetians imposed a 40-day isolation of ships and people arriving in their lagoon during the Black Death.
#DeadorHungry

Only one of Churchill’s 4 famous 1940 speeches, ‘Finest Hour,’ was broadcast at the time. All of them were delivered in the Commons, but only after that one did Churchill afterwards record a version for the BBC. The other speeches he only recorded in 1949. Via @RichardToye

Henry I gave permission for two of his granddaughters to be blinded after their father blinded the son of another baron. Their mother, Juliane, was so enraged she rebelled against Henry and attempted to kill him with a crossbow. She missed.
From @cspencer1508.

(To listen to any of the pods or watch the shows please check out the article. It's got all the links....

https://www.historyhit.com/amazing-historical-facts-dan-snow-learned-in-2020/)

Anyway- continued...

The British government halted the search for war dead on the Western Front in September 1921 when they were still finding 500 bodies a week.

@richardvanemden told me this gobsmacking fact. Other organisations did search but this was the end of large scale recovery.

USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine in 1945. Survivors were in the water for 4 days. 600 men died of exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks. Experts believe it may be the single greatest concentration of shark attacks on humans in history
Thanks to @SurfinSara

Doctors Flora Murray & Louisa Garrett Anderson attempted to join up in 1914 but were not allowed because they were women. So they set up an independent hospital to treat wounded veterans with all-female staff. It rapidly became regarded as the best in the UK

Thanks Wendy Moore!

The last time the British Army deliberately killed anyone in Britain, (as distinct from N Ireland obvs), was Aug 1911. 2 civilians were shot in Liverpool during a rail strike, and a few days later in Llanelli 2 civilians were killed again during a strike. Via Robert Evans

In 50 days on the WW2 Eastern Front- July and August 1943- the losses suffered by the Germans and the Soviets were greater than those sustained by the USA and Great Britain combined, for the whole of the Second World War.
From Kursk re-examiner @DrBenWheatley

CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED:
In 1647 the Puritanical Parliament banned all celebrations of Christmas and Easter for good. (Charles II reversed this when he came to the throne in 1660). From @jhmccunn again naturally.