Interesting Facts - Page 78

386
Louis Daguerre was a French inventor whose daguerreotype process was a huge step forward in photography. The French government purchased his invention in 1839, then gave it away for free as a "gift to the world".
387
Prior to the 1800s, it was not uncommon for widows in India to be burned on their husband's funeral pyre. This practice was known as "suttee". Even today, widows in India face severe discrimination.
388
Noah Webster popularized many of the spellings commonly used in American English such as color, traveler, and center. But some of his spellings didn't catch on. These include masheen, tung, dawter, iland, thum, wimmen, and beleev.
389
The Lake of Menteith is the only "lake" in Scotland. All the other lakes in Scotland are generally referred to as "lochs".
390
The reason that conjoined twins were once called "Siamese twins" is because of Chang and Eng Bunker, born in Siam (modern-day Thailand) in 1811. In 1829, the twins traveled to the United States and toured the country, becoming rich and famous in the process. After a decade of touring, they settled in North Carolina, where they became American citizens, bought slaves, married local sisters, and fathered 21 children.
31 Comments
+10
Level 84
Jan 8, 2020
Webster surely wanted to break off with everything British.

He remained me a character from a novel (or nívola, as its author, Miguel de Unamuno, called it) named "Niebla" ("Fog"): this character (Uncle Fermín) called himself a "literary anarchist", that is, he believed words should be written differently as they were commonly written. He would often claim that some letters were bound to die (whether by disuse or because they were "intrinsically evil"), and thus, should be removed from all spelling.

+6
Level 17
Jan 10, 2020
it is not sutee it is sati.i am from india
+2
Level 68
Mar 27, 2020
That's true. Was gonna say that.
+10
Level 78
Apr 25, 2020
It's suttee, a variant spelling of sati, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English.
+1
Level 69
Mar 5, 2021
This always baffles me. The dictionary shows these words as synonyms. Apparently, English is not the only language that needs fixing.
+11
Level 59
Jan 10, 2020
Interesting fact: every trace of the “Nice” and “Gary” comment trains on pages 69 and 70 respectively are gone. Never forget.
+1
Level 78
Apr 25, 2020
What were those comments about?
+10
Level 58
Oct 10, 2020
hm I wonder what people commenting 'nice' on page 69 could be referring to
+2
Level 62
Sep 28, 2021
Nathan Lyon
+2
Level 35
Jun 30, 2022
Nice Gary!
+2
Level 31
Jan 22, 2020
Interesting facts: Minnesota lines up with italy.
+3
Level ∞
Jan 22, 2020
How so? The mainland of Italy has a latitude between 37 and 47 degrees north. Minnesota ranges from 43.5 to 49 degrees north. While there is some overlap, Italy is much further south over all.
+2
Level 60
May 1, 2020
Though Widows do face discrimination in India but the practice of burning them alive when their husbands died is made.

Though not fully, it is believed that the britishers brought such practices with them where in the UK at that time, a lot of women were burnt alive considering them witches.

The practice of sati was found in few antique books, manuscripts and such and all such were recorded from West India especially Rajasthan.

But the practice of Sati as mentioned by the westerners says that it's done in Bengal which is absolutely false. This is because the britishers first came to Bengal and they wanted to make money and they didn't allowed the Christian missionaries to interfere in their work, when the missionaries were found they were sent back in the next ship. So then, the missionaries made up the sati practice that India has a lot of evil customs which we want to abolish so let us built churches and stuffs.

And I'm from India, Bengal in particular so I know this

+5
Level 78
Aug 11, 2020
Well you're wrong. It is actually an ancient Hindu practice that was first recorded during the Gupta Empire (around 1500 years ago), and became widespread in South Asia from around AD 1200 to 1600. The British East India Company imposed a ban on the practice in Calcutta in 1798, but did not allow Christian missionaries to work within its territories in India with fear of unrest. But the issue of suttee became a rallying point for British Christians, who pushed legislation through the House of Commons in 1813 to allow missionary work in India specifically to end such practices, and in 1861 suttee was officially banned throughout British India.
+3
Level 51
Jun 14, 2021
Sati was banned before the British Empire, the Peshwas banned it in 1800 and the Marathas banned it in 1821.
+3
Level 51
Jun 14, 2021
Missionaries didn't make up Sati and it also had no association with witch-burning, the missionaries in order to spread their Christianity, over-reported the instances of Sati and called it forceful even though it was voluntary.
+3
Level 60
May 1, 2020
Here r some useful links about the Sati Practice

Truth about Sati- YouTube"

Distorted History of India in Hindi- YouTube"

Today, unfortunately even most Indians believe that Sati is an Indian practice and the Britishers abolished it. That's because we are taught that and we are taught such bullshits because our education system was framed by the britishers. And the government doesn't changes the education system because they know if we get educated then we will change the government.

+9
Level ∞
May 1, 2020
Sounds like motivated reasoning. The Wikipedia article seems to be a balanced take on the subject. It happened. It was a cultural practice that was tolerated in many parts of India. It was not particularly common. The idea that it has something to do with witch burning in England is non-sensical.
+2
Level 51
Jun 14, 2021
The origin of Sati was by Shiva's first wife "Sati" she burned herself alive because her father was not happy with her marriage with Lord Shiva.

Sati over the years was evolved to be associated with husband's death, Mahabharta has three instances of Sati which were all voluntary and the Rig Veda reported one Sati over a period of 700 years.

The British records mostly show that Sati happened in West Bengal but Ramayana (which is based in Eastern India) has no witness or mention of Sati.

+3
Level 51
Jun 14, 2021
Wikipedia is not a balanced source for information about Hinduism and India, a Twitter thread by an ex-wiki editor exposed a cartel of editors that get funded to spread misinformation by Wikipedia, for example, Wikipedia lists and Indian right-wing youth organization "Bajrang Dal" as militants even though several members of it are killed and abducted by the government and the minority religion of India.

The same goes for Love-Jihad as Wikipedia lists it as "propaganda" even though there are hundreds of instances of it in common sight.

+4
Level 78
Aug 11, 2020
So every immoral custom that existed or exists in India (plus everything else that is negative) has to do with the 'Britishers'? You must have been brainwashed by radical 'Indishers'.
+6
Level 70
Jun 10, 2020
For #387 I read it was "windows" first and didn't question it until the last sentence.
+3
Level 71
Jan 26, 2021
A whole new meaning for 'defenestration'.
+2
Level 67
Jul 13, 2020
The names of the Siamese twins were Chang and Eng Bunker, not Cheng
+1
Level 51
Feb 16, 2021
I was just about to say that.
+2
Level ∞
Feb 16, 2021
Fixed
+4
Level 28
Oct 28, 2021
Meanwhile I'm wondering: how did the original Siamese twins both hav-
+1
Level 76
Mar 5, 2022
pulitzer-prize winning composer caroline shaw is descended from chang and eng
+1
Level 60
Apr 21, 2023
Cheng and Eng's wives were a couple of my ancestors' (I'm not sure how many generations back) sisters.
+1
Level 67
Jun 26, 2023
How not common?
+1
Level 50
Sep 29, 2023
#388 Those spellings did not catch on for a good reason. They are very weird.