How many languages did famed 19th century English explorer Richard Burton speak?
Answer: Twenty Nine.
Source: Special Broadcasting Service, February 2013
On This Day
1535 – Following the Affair of the Placards – where anti-Catholic posters appeared in Paris – the French king leads an anti-Protestant procession through Paris.
1789 – The first American novel ‘The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth’ is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. If it hoped to be a Hollywood blockbuster, the title would definitely have to be shortened.
1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
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 Sinope, on the Black Sea, in 412 BCE.
- My father was a magistrate accused of “defacing the currency”, resulting in me being forced into poverty.
- I found that this enabled me to live in accordance with my belief in entire self-sufficiency.
- I spent a wandering life begging my way and sleeping in the open in any such shelter I could find, leading to me being dubbed a “Cynic” in Athens.
- I died, legend has it, by eating raw cuttlefish in order to prove that cooking it was unnecessary.
Last week’s answer:
Belisarius (circa 494-565)
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Highlighted Historical Quotation
“The newspaper’s function is not to instruct, but to startle.”
19th century US newspaper magnate James Gordon Bennett, founder of the New York Herald, first published in 1835.Source: Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg
More at: History
HistoryWow’s Featured Historical Figure of Note
William Hull (1753-1825)American military commander. He surrendered United States troops at Detroit to the British during the War of 1812, dealing a severe blow to the American war effort. A court-martial found Hull guilty of cowardice and neglect of duty.
More at: History
