Longest Known Beard in History

Hans Langseth who died in 1927, had the longest known beard in history. When he died, it was measured at 18.6 feet long.

Hans Langseth at 66

He started to grow this beard at 19 for a local beard-growing competition. After the competition ended, Hans continued to grow his now flowing facial hair.

At his death, 17.6 feet of Hans' beard was cut off, which i now in the Smithsonian.






Sources:
Hans Langseth: http://hanslangseth.com/HansLangseth/index.html
"The World's Longest Beard Is One Of The Smithsonian's Strangest Artifacts": http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/smithsonian-home-worlds-longest-beard-180953370/?no-ist

Old Colorized Black and White Photographs

It can be amazing to see dull grey photographs transformed into color. In recent days, I discovered a thread on Reddit and Imgur. This thread shows views of iconic blank and white photographs colored by the digital hand. My favorites are below:

Albert Einstein, 1921:





klassixx posted the colored versions.






















Hindenburg, 1937:















See more colorful pictures at the link above and here.

Fun Fact:

Did you know that J.R. Tolkien would write letters to his children every Christmas?
Yeah, he would write to them as Santa Claus and tell them of what wonderful adventures were happening each year at the North Pole.

I hope you had a great time over the holidays!

Van Gogh's Ear and it's Resurrection

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is very famous especially for his painting Starry Night. The story of van Gogh's madness is of a dire nature to understanding him, more importantly (to this post) is the story of how he cut off his own ear.
It is said that van Gogh cut off his ear in one of his common fits of possibly bipolar madness, which came and went in storms of depression:
On December 23 1888, van Gogh was savagely angry at his friend Gauguin, regarding a Madame and he stood in front of a mirror. He cut part of his ear, taking off a part, he put it in an envelope and personally delivered to the said Madame who was at the local "house of ill repute." He told her to "Take it, it will be useful."  The prostitute fainted. She called the police the next day who found van Gogh at his home. He was admitted to the hospital, and soon recovered.

His Bandaged Ear and a Hat.

The Resurrection: 

A German museum grew living cells of van Gogh with a 3D printer and DNA from his descendants. It says on the website:

You can talk to the ear. The input sound is processed by a computer using software that converts it to simulate nerve impulses in real time. 

Quote from
May 30-July 4 2014: Diemut Strebe: Sugababe: http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader%248887

Sources:
German artist 'regrows' severed Van Gogh ear: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/06/german-artist-regrows-severed-van-gogh-ear-20146316242869877.html
Van Gogh's own words after cutting his ear recorded in Paris newspaper: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Van-Goghs-own-words-after-cutting-his-ear-recorded-in-Paris-newspaper/30392
A tale of two ears by Ben Cohen from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539517/?report=classic

Check out

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh 

by Vincent van Gogh and Arnold Pomerans

Click the link and see the madness of van Gogh.

You Should Know These Facts About P.T. Barnum

If you don't know who P.T. Barnum is, I'll tell you. He was an moderate hoaxer and showman, meaning that he didn't always display hoaxes but frequently he would.  Like his first fascinating object of exhibition to curious viewers was the 'nurse of George Washington.' She was an African American woman named Joyce

Phineas Taylor Barnum. 

Heth, whom he said was actually over 160 years old.  He would make money displaying Joyce in tours (that way he would make more money; classic businessman's move) from 1835-6. In 1836 Joyce died at her true age...70 years old.

Today hoaxes are frequently defrauded because contemporary people know that they shouldn't always trust everything they hear, which is a hard subject to write about without sounding paranoid, some doubt is just healthy. Anyways, people were more gullible in the 1800's, and Barnum knew how to use that to his advantage.

After a brief failure after Joyce died, he purchased a museum in New York and became the Father of Sideshow, commonly called the 'freaks' of the day.

Now that you know who he is, let me tell you all the interesting things about him.

1.  He is widely thought to have coined 'There's a Sucker Born Every Minute," even though it is likely he never said it.
2. He is the maker of the Feejee Mermaid Hoax, which at the time was advertised as a beautiful mermaid when actually it was a dead monkey and fish sown together (that's gross and unhealthy)

How you might imagine mermaids

What this mermaid looked like

3. He also exhibited a dwarf as General Tom Thumb.

The General Insurance Guy in Real Life
actually no it's Tom Thumb

Sources:
Phineas Taylor Barnum on the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannia: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Barnum,_Phineas_Taylor
The Hoaxes of P.T. Barnum: http://hoaxes.org/archive/display/category/p.t._barnum

Bobby Leach and his Death.

Here's a meme:

Totally True.

For those who use Google Translate,
it reads Bobby Leach went across Niagara Falls in a Barrel, he died after he slipped on an orange peel.

Made free from Imgur.
Sources;
Find a Grave Memorial.

Portrait Lives: Queen Victoria Part 2

It continues...

aged about 41

aged about 50.

aged about 64

aged about 68

aged about 70

aged 81

She died at 81 on 22 January 1901, she had the longest reign in English History (Elizabeth II should keep on living just to beat Victoria's record).

Check out more about

Queen Victoria: A Personal History

by Christopher Hibbert

Vicky is not amused, either you click the link or 

she will attack you with her fan.

The picture has inaccurate colors.

Source:
Timeline of the life Queen Victoria: https://www.royal.gov.uk/List%20Images/QV%20Education%20project/Timeline%20of%20the%20life%20of%20Queen%20Victoria%202.pdf
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon58.html
Victoria: http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon58.html

Portrait Lives: Queen Victoria Part 1

If you gotta know something about me you gotta know I post late in the day. Yep, one of the bad things.

Frankly, many people know of Queen Victoria, but nothing about her (like me an hour ago). The only thing I really knew about her is that she loved her husband and was very powerful. Probably both true but that doesn't demonstrate a significant of an understanding of Victoria. She was actively involved in politics and extended over foreign and domestic innovations with her long reign of influence. She was a great monarch of her time.

Born on 24 May 1819.

aged 9

aged 4

aged 14

aged about 23

aged about 25

aged about 35

aged about 35

aged  about 40.

aged about 41

Part 2 tomorrow!

10 Facts You Don't Know About Charlie Chaplin

Here are 10 facts you don't know about the famous actor and director:

What did he do?

1. He had a young child that died.

His child with his first wife, Mildred died after just 3 days. His name was Norman Spencer Chaplin. 2 years later Mildred and Chaplin divorced.

2. He was born in the same year as Adolf Hitler, Otto Frank, and Robert Taft.

3. He met Gandhi...

Proof is in the picture.

4. ...and Albert Einstein.

Way to go, Chaplin!

He knew who to meet.

5. He was exiled from the US.

it was for political reasons. He returned to win an Oscar and receive the longest standing ovation in the history of the Academy.

6. When he was 54, he married his third wife, an 18-year-old.

He was married to her for the longest, since the marriage was ended by his death.

7. That third woman he married (just mentioned) was Oona O'Neill the daughter of the famous playwright Eugene O'Neill.

They had eight children.

Chaplin and his third wife, Oona.

8. His body was stolen and held for ransom.

Yep, just a year after he died, his body was stolen. More info here.

9. His mother became mentally ill when he was a boy.

She had had two illegitimate children in and before her marriage. her husband had died before she drifted into insanity when he was 37. Charlie and his step-brother Sydney were taken in by the State.

10. He played a role as Jewish Barber who is mistaken as Hitler.

In the Great Dictator, Chaplin played a Jewish barber who is mistaken for Adenoid Hynkel and the dictator himself. Even though, Hitler is known by a different name in this movie it is easy to see that it is Hynkel is Hitler. The whole film, in fact, can be seen as just a parody of Hitler. Below is the trailer for the movie.

Sources:
Down but not out...:http://chaplin.bfi.org.uk/resources/bfi/biog/biog.php?fid=biog1
Edna Purivance: http://www.ednapurviance.org/
Chaplin A Life: http://www.chaplinalife.com/
Fun Trivia: http://www.funtrivia.com/en/celebrities/chaplin-charlie-16030.html
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032553/

Check out
The Autobiography of Charlie Chaplin
Click the picture link to know it all. Click it.

Portrait Lives are Moved to Saturdays!

From now on Portrait Lives Wednesday will be called Portrait Lives Saturday. You now can read a post while watching Saturday Night Live.  Next one is about Adolf Hitler, which should be interesting...no fascinating.

He is excited for the post.

Quiz and Battle on History

Here is something fun I made up on the top of my head (in a rush). A battle between me and you on a Quiz on History! Beware, I am competitive!

It is 7 questions. If you get 0 right I win. You get more than 4 questions right I just lost by a little. You get more than 6 right I lose by a long stretch. You get the 7 right...which is unpractically impossible...anyway I lose.

Afterwards you can highlight next to the right of the questions to see the answer.

Ok, here are some more rules:

You can't look them up.

Try to do your best (because you're gonna need it).

1. Where was the skeleton of King Richard III found? C

A. buried in a popular place in London.  B. buried in a yard in Oxford  C. buried in a parking lot


2.  What image in the Sistine Chapel absolutely revolutionized painting? B

A. Delphic Sibyl

B. Creation of Adam

C. Expulsion of Adam and Eve

3. What medical conditions was suggested that Lisa might have in Mona Lisa? C.
A. Pregnancy and blindness
B. Scoliosis and Limb Paralysis
C. Tumor and a lump






4. Who was the one of the first child actors or actresses? E. At least that I know of.
A. Nelly Gwynn
B. Shirley Temple
C. Isa Bowman
D. Susanna Centlivre
E. Master Betty

from Arm Chair General

5. Who is this? (on the right) B.
A. Marat

B. Robespierre

C. George Washington

D. Guy Carleton

6. What did Michelangelo do when a critic said that there were too many naked people in the Sistine Chapel? A.

A. He drew him in Hell in the last judgement with a snake biting his privates

B. Slapped him

C. Made him disappear

D. Was above anger, he drew him in heaven with wings in the last judgement.

7.  Whose last reported words were "we are running on north and south?" C.

A. James Garfield

B. JFK, Jr. 

C. Amelia Earhart

D. Robert Lee

So did I win or did you!?

Check out 

National Geographic Almanac of World History, 2nd Edition

by Various
Don't you wanna support printed books? just click.

Portrait Lives: Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia

It's Portrait Lives Wednesday!
Every Wednesday features a Portrait Lives, which is a weekly post showing the age progression in specific historical figures through contemporary portraits of them. Way more fun than it sounds.

Her family:
In order from left to right: Olga, Maria, Czar Nicholas II,
Alix or Alexandra, Anastasia, Alexi, and Tatiana 

Anastasia along with her family was executed during the 1918 Revolution in Russia. She was part of the royal family, the youngest and fourth daughter of the Czar Nicholas II. Her brother was born about 4-5 years after her and he was killed when 13 years old.
For years after her execution, there were rumors that Anastasia was supposedly still alive. People even claimed that they were in fact the supposed Duchess, the most famous was Anna Anderson. Not until Anastasia's body was found did the rumors die down.
She was just a young woman aged 17 when she was killed violently. It is sad that her and her sisters and young brother had to die to surmount a revolution.

A Portrait Lives for Grand Duchess Anastasia:

1. about 1 year old

3. about 4

2. about 3 years old

4. about 5 years old with her siblings 

5. about 6 years old

6. about 8 years old with her brother

7. about 10

8. about 13 years old

9. about 14 years

10. about 14 years 

11. about 15 years

12. 15 years old, now in home arrest with her siblings. She is
the second most to the right with the dog.

13. aged about 16 years old 

14. about 17 still in captivity

15. forensic facial reconstruction at 17 years old

Maria and Anastasia making funny faces

Some Bonus Informal and Funny Photos:

her father letting her take a smoke

Anastasia with her brother, Alexi 

Check out

Sources:
Livadia.org
Romanov Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.