In pre-Meiji restoration Japan, why did a Samurai shave his head before battle?
Answer: To indicate he was ready to die.
Source: The Emergence of Modern Japan by Janet E Hunter; General Historical Texts
On This Day
1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Quick Shot Videos
A short, sharp hit of history in video format. Acclaimed Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde was the toast of London society in the 1890s until things came decidedly unstuck through an association with a young British aristocrat, Lord Alfred Douglas, known as ‘Bosie’.
The source for this HistoryWow video is: Oscar and Bosie - A Fatal Passion by Trevor Fisher; General Historical Texts.
More Quick Shot Videos on HistoryWow's YouTube Channel: 
Who Am I?
- I was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1466.
- After six years in an Augustinian monastery, I became private secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, and in 1492 a priest.
- In 1498 I moved to England, where I became professor of divinity and Greek at Cambridge.
- After publishing my first satire in 1509 (Encomium Moriae), my masterpiece, Colloquia, appeared in 1519, an audacious attack on church abuses.
- From 1521 I lived in Basel, where despite being controversial, I enjoyed great fame and respect.
Last week’s answer:
Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel 1605-1657
HistoryWow’s Highlighted Historical Quotation
“Moral Action is that great and only experiment, in which all riddles of the most manifold appearances explain themselves. Who so understands it, and in rigid sequence of thought can lay it open, is forever master of nature.”
Novalis (1772-1801), German philosopherSource: The Works of Thomas Carlyle by Thomas Carlyle et al
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Featured Historical Figure of Note
Samuel Alexander (1859 – 1938)Australian born British philosopher. Was professor of philosophy at the University of Manchester. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college. Alexander was the author of Moral Order and Progress, Art and the Material and many papers on philosophical subjects.
More at: History
