Viking Fact Twenty Six

Vikings started to settle in Scotland not long after their initial raid on the monestary at Lindisfarne in 793. The Viking population was densest in a settlement on the northeast tip on what became the county of Caithness.

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American Civil War Fact Twenty Six

Both sides had a General killed due to action at the Battle of Gettysburg. Major General John F Reynolds of the Union army was killed the first day of the battle on July 1, 1863. Major General William D Pender of the Confederate army was wounded on July 2, 1863 and died on July 18.


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Ancient Egypt Fact Twenty Six

During the mummification process priests often wore a jackal mask which represented the god Anubis. Anubis was the god of death and people often associated jackals with him because they were known to dig up the bodies in cemeteries and eat them. It is thought the first tombs were built to deal with this problem.


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Pirate Fact Twenty Six

As long as there were pirates there were also those trying to hunt them down. One pirate hunter was Captain Benjamin Hornigold. Hornigold had been a pirate himself from 1715 to 1718. He gave that up when he accepted a general pardon for all pirates by King George II of England. Then he accepted a commission by the governor of the Bahamas Woodes Rogers to hunt down pirates. Among those he pursued was his former shipmate Edward Teach AKA Blackbeard. Hornigold spent 18 months hunting his former allies until he died in late 1719 when his ship was wrecked on a reef during a hurricane.


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St Callistus I 16th Pope

St Callistus I was the 16th Pope from 217 to 222. He had been one of the Christians sentenced to work in the mines of Sardinia. Later he was freed when Pope Victor I visited the mines with a list of those to be released and while his name was not on it Callistus pleaded and convinced Victor to take him also. The mines had greatly diminished the health of Callistus and he was sent to Antium to recuperate while he collected a allowance from Pope Victor I. When Pope Zephyrinus started as the Roman See he called Callistus to Rome and made him a deacon while entrusting him to oversee the burial chambers of the Church along Appian Way. 

When he was chosen to succeed Zephyrinus it sparked a schism when Hippolytus led the followers of his theological school out of the Church and declared himself a rival or anti-pope. Callistus was the first of four Popes to serve while Hippolytus stood in opposition. One issue that was decried by both Hippolytus and the Montanist Tertullian was that Callistus offered an edict that granted Communion to those who had committed adultery and fortification if they did penance. Callistus also took a controversial stance when he allowed lower clergy to marry and declared that noble women could marry those of lower classes including slaves. While his exact cause of death is unknown he is credited with having been a martyr and may have been killed during an uprising. His Feast day is celebrated on October 14.

Ancient Seven Wonders of the World Fact Twenty Five

The city of Alexandria, Egypt was founded in 332 BC which was only fifty years before the construction of the Lighthouse. 


Ancient Seven Wonders page

Knights Templar Fact Twenty Five

Thibaud Gaudin was the 22nd of 23 Grand Masters of the Knights Templar and he held the position the shorted amount of time. He was Grand Master from August 1291 until April 1292 when he died.


Knights Templar page