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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, this week I picked up 3 books about Rod Serling for an upcoming project of mine, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday we revisit the very first Friday Forum episode.
Today fun fact is: On December 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Napoleon I, the first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. So, here are some interesting facts about Napoleon. (Source: www.ohfact.com)
- Napoleon wasn’t French! Napoleon’s family was more Italian than French. He was born on the Island of Corsica, which wasn’t 100% French as the island just had a year of being in French power and they had a different accent. At age 9, Napoleon attended school in France, where he learned to speak French fluently but never lost his Corsican accent.
- Early during his military career Napoleon was nicknamed “The Little Corporal” for his allegedly short stature. However he had an average height during those times, about 1.70 m. The confusion regarding his height was due to the fact that the height recorded at the time of his death was 5 ft 2 in French units which translates to 5 foot 6 in present times. Another reason was he liked to keep extremely tall soldiers around him which made him appear shorter.
- Napoleon changed the world standard of driving. Before Napoleon, the horse riders would hold their left on a road everywhere in continental Europe so that the right hand carrying the sword can be used to attack if need be. Napoleon thought it to be an old tactic and changed sides to surprise his enemies and this spread over all the conquered lands except Great Britain as it was never conquered by Napoleon. This means most countries in the world today are still following Napoleon in at least one way.
- Napoleon wore a packet of poison around his neck so that he wouldn’t have to deal with being captured, deported, or all that other stuff that comes to a wannabe world conqueror that loses. When he finally went to use it in 1814 it only succeeded in making him violently ill as it had lost its potency.
- Night writing was actually another one of Napoleon’s military tactics so that soldiers on battlefield could easily read documents in dark and communicate without making a sound. He requested a code system but it was too complex for the soldiers to learn. The system proved its worth when a 12 year old blind boy, Louis Braille learned night writing and inspired by it developed the Braille system for visually impaired. So again we can pass on some credit to Napoleon for this excellent idea.
Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what you’ve learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from you. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we go back to an episode that originally aired on March 28, 2014. It just so happens that it’s from Mark Des Cotes. Little did any of us know just how big a role Mark would play in the life of this podcast.
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