The Unborn King

Sounds exactly like the title to a fantasy novel, doesn't it? BUT, it isn't. No, no, I decided to do some Googling after seeing this post* on Tumblr. Someone mentioned that Mexico once had a president who only served for forty-five days and for whatever reason, I got the idea in my head to find out who the youngest monarch ever was. Yeah, I don't know how I made that jump either. In any case, my Google-Fu was on point tonight and I found this post on Mental Floss listing just what I was looking for, and that's how I found out about an unborn king named Shapur II and holy hell, this guy's story is a doozy.

Basically, his dad, Shapur I died before he was born and Persian nobles, for whatever reason, blinded one brother, killed another, and imprisoned the last one, clearing the path for Shapur to take the throne as the ninth king of the Sassanid Empire. Apparently him still being in the womb wasn't an issue to these nobles and they crowned him before he was even born. He would go on to rule for seventy years and did well enough at the job to be given "The Great" appended to his name. I tell ya, history is both awesome and weird as hell, man.



*Fair warning, my Tumblr is NSFW, so use caution if you decide to go exploring.

Elmer E. Ellsworth and John J. Williams, the first and last to die in the American Civil War

Wikipedia.

Ellsworth was one of Lincoln’s broheims back in Illinois and at the start of the Civil War (May 24, 1861), offered to capture an oversized Confederate flag from atop a hotel in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Abe agreed and Ellsworth lead his men, the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment into the town. It was going well until the hotel owner shot him in the chest with a shotgun (the owner was then promptly shot by one of Ellsworth’s men).

Wikipedia.

Williams was killed at a battle at a place called Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, Texas on May 13, 1865. Technically, this battle happened right after the Civil War ended, but its close enough that Williams is generally considered the last soldier to die in the War.

I actually have no idea why I think this is interesting, but knowing who the first and last people to die in a war just is. Another point of interest is the fact that they eleven days apart. How freaky would it have been if Ellsworth and Williams had died on the same day, but four years apart?

Awesome video: USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia

So apparently back in like 1991, a TV movie came out that focused on the first battle between ironclad warships called Ironclads. The battle scene itself is quite good.



This is my favorite era of naval warfare, the transition from wind-powered, wooden hulled warships to steam-powered, metal hulled warships. I should do some posts about that.

Damn, Lincoln looks like a good movie

Tommy Lee Jones looks weird with that hair, but any movie with him in it tends to be good. Daniel Day-Lewis might be the greatest living actor today and certainly one of the greatest ever. The movie won't focus on Lincoln's entire life or presidency, but the last months of his life. Who knows, if the movie is a big enough success, maybe Spielberg will make prequels covering the rest of Lincoln's life.

British Empire, circa 1921

A fairly interesting map showing the empire's territorial holdings in the years between the world wars.

Wikipedia.

What I think is interesting (and amusing) is the size disparity between the UK itself and some of its colonies and dominions. The disparity becomes even bigger when you consider that Africa is the second largest continent and its size was often decreased (while the UK's was increased).

Actually, Belgium has the UK beat when it comes to size difference. The Belgian Congo was so much bigger than the Kingdom that controlled it, it looked like somebody gave Rhode Island control of a territory the size of China.

The Soviet Union, though, holy freaking crap.

206 years ago today, over 5,000 Prussian soldiers surrender to 800 French soldiers

Cripes, how downtrodden do you have to be to surrender to Frenchies? :P

Wikipedia.

But in all seriousness, that's pretty mind-blowing, but not at all surprising, given the circumstances. I mean, the Prussians had just suffered a tremendous defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt and what was left of their army was being hunted down and taken out. Damn, though, 5,300 surrender to 800? Even the peasants from Warcraft II were that defeated.

Damn, where were these guys during WWII?

Saw this on Tumblr and it boggled my mind: Operation Dingo. Look at the casualties.

Click to embiggen.

The Rhodesian forces managed to inflict 8,000 casualties, while only suffering eight of their own. On the downside, the Rhodesian military belonged to a white minority government that was attempting to maintain control over an African country, so the praise is limited. On the other hand, Robert Mugabe is one of the worst dictators currently alive.

Still, Dingo was brilliantly executed. The reason the casualties on the ZANLA side were so high is because of clever trickery on the part of the Rhodesians. They had a DC-8 plane fly over ZANLA's base of operations prior to the initial air attack, which caused the rebels to lower their guard. When the Canberra bombers began their attack runs, the latter group assumed that the DC-8 was performing another fly over and didn't bother running for cover.

Needless to say, they were wrong. The bombers dropped anti-personnel bombs and their attack was followed up by the other aircraft. Meanwhile, the two hundred Rhodesian soldiers surrounded the camp and went about their rather distasteful business. It actually would have been even more of a bloodbath if the Rhodesians had had more men to encompass the camp more.

The amazing thing is that of the two dead on the government side, only one was a soldier. The other was a pilot who was killed when his Vampire fighter jet was shot down.

For the Napoleonic Wars fans

I REGRET NOTHING.

Francis II, King of France and possible 16th century pimp

"Bitch better have my money."

I regret nothing about this post. Nothing.

Picture via Wikipedia. Questionable fashion decisions by Francis II of France.

Holy crap, this B-17 ticked off the wrong German

I don't think duct tape is going to fix that...

And I didn't notice until now, but there's a Browning M2 .50 cal hanging from the plane like a chunk of meat hanging from a flap of skin. Holy crap. According to the caption that went with this picture on Wikipedia, the bombardier didn't survive the mission. Well, duh. Wolverine from the X-Men probably wouldn't have survived that. But in all seriousness, I can't believe that the pilot and co-pilot survived such a hit. No wonder they called them Flying Fortresses.

Picture via Wikipedia.