Bread Reaches Japan
26. Bread had not existed in Japan before 1543, when Portuguese sailors brought it to the shores there.
27. In the 16th century, the Pope declared capybaras to be “fish” so that his followers could eat them.
28. One of the earliest weapons of mass destruction was used during the Siege of Antwerp in 1585. A Dutch explosive fire ship with 4 tons of explosive rammed a fortified Spanish bridge, killing 800 Spaniards, causing a small tsunami, and shaking windows 22 miles away.
29. Around the 16th century, Romania’s Biertan fortified church had a chamber where all couples who wanted a divorce were made to live with only one of each item, such as one bed, one spoon, one chair, and so on, before separating. Only one couple in 300 years actually divorced.
30. Martin Luther was a great German Reformation leader in 1543 who wrote a 65,000-word treatise titled “On the Jews and their Lies,” in which he claimed that Jews should receive no mercy or kindness, and that “these poisonous worms” should be expelled for all time.
31. The explanation for why so many working-class British men wore flat caps is that a 16th-century Act of Parliament meant to encourage wool consumption punished non-nobles over the age of 6 if they were not wearing a woolen cap.
32. In 1599, Andrew Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, was killed and had his head cut off. A Greek artist then painted the head and sewed it back onto his body before his burial.
33. In 1517, a nobleman offered to pay a corrupt Catholic monk named Johann Tetzel for an indulgence to forgive him for a future sin. The monk agreed at once and granted it, but as he rode out of town the nobleman attacked and beat him. He then told the monk that was the future sin he had in mind.
34. Yasuke was a 16th century African who traveled to Japan as a slave and caused such a sensation that a powerful warlord wanted to see him. He believed Yasuke’s black skin was painted and ordered it to be scrubbed. However, they became friends, and Yasuke was later given the prestigious rank of a Samurai.
35. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I paid £10,000 for what was thought to be a Unicorn horn but was actually a Narwhal tusk and is now part of the Crown Jewels and known as the Horn of Windsor.
Medici’s Ban on Thick Waists
36. In 1550’s France, Catherine de Medici, the Queen of France, was so repulsed by women with “thick waists” that she imposed a ban on them at her court. This caused the corset to become widely used throughout western civilization for the next 350 years.
37. While being burned alive at the stake in 1556, a woman delivered a live baby, and the executioner then hurled it back into the flames.
38. Ishikawa Goemon was a legendary 16th-century Japanese outlaw hero who robbed the rich of gold and other valuables to give them to the poor, for which he was sentenced to death. He and his son were boiled alive in public in an iron cauldron, but he managed to save his son by holding him above his head. His son was later forgiven.
39. The word “swagger” was first used in 1590 by William Shakespeare in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
40. In the 16th century, prestigious mathematics professorships could be “won” by defeating the current professor in a public algebra competition.
41. To evade capture and persecution in 16th century England, Catholic priests hid in “priest holes”, secret spaces in many homes that were built to conceal a priest during a search. Sometimes priests died from starvation or asphyxiation.
42. A 16th-century serial killer named Christman Genipperteinga is said to have murdered 964 individuals. This including 6 of his newborn babies, birthed from a sex slave he held captive 7 years. He was caught when she (slave) convinced him to let her go to the town where she betrayed him by dropping peas for the town’s men to follow and capture him.
43. The traditional Japanese dish of Tempura was actually brought to them by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th Century.
44. Tycho Brahe was an enormously rich 16th-century Danish astronomer, who is well known for the pet moose that went with him everywhere and developed a strong taste for the beer, eventually becoming so intoxicated at a party that it fell down a flight of stairs and died from subsequent injuries.
45. The first example of wearable computing was a ring with a usable Abacus in 16th century China.
Iron Hand After Cannonfire
46. In 1504, a German knight named Götz von Berlichingen lost his right arm when enemy cannon fire forced his own sword against him. He had two mechanical hands made for him, capable of holding a shield to a feathered pen. He was then known as Götz of the Iron Hand.
47. Tomatoes come from the Americas and were not brought to Italy until the 1540s.
48. Oda Nobunaga was a powerful daimyō (feudal lord) who nearly unified Japan before his death in the 16th century during the late Sengoku period. He supposedly had a homosexual relationship with vassal Mori Ranmaru, an especially attractive man. At the time, their relationship was not considered unusual, but it was regarded as strong and admirable.
49. A group of monks in the Austrian Alps in the 16th century created a way of painting on canvas made from spider webs, and today fewer than 100 known examples survive.
50. Famous 16th-century Italian nobleman Alessandro de Medici was half black. In fact, many European noble families have relatively recent black ancestry.
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