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Something From History You Probably Never Knew...

Thus endorsing my opinion that the majority of afghan muslim males are happy to keep the country(I use the term loosely) living in the dark ages.Except for armaments of course.
Yes, a Madrassa can hardly be described as a seat of learning can it and that is about it for most of 'em.
I remember a scene from my time in Seismic watching a group of Sudanis clustered around a radio one evening, listening to some tedious infant reciting the Koran from memory...and thinking I will never complain about crappy talent shows on TV again..... whilst sipping my flash and tonic.
 
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The Jolly Jacks actually got paid. (Even though the recruitment method may leave something to be desired) And there was the potential to make a lot of money in prize capture of enemy ships.
I read somewhere that amongst sea farers the Royal Navy was something of a cushy billet. Commercial ships sailed with just enough crew as required to man the ship to maximise profits. The Navy sailed with enough men to man the guns: vastly more than was needed just to move the ship about the globe. Food and grog we’re guaranteed and prize money was a possibility. Discipline was brutal but Georgian times were a brutal age thus the navy was not much more savage than elsewhere.
 
"In response to the Korean Conflict, the Navy disbanded the Blue Angels and the team reported to Fighter Squadron 191 (VF-191), "Satan's Kittens," aboard the aircraft carrier USS Princeton in 1950. "

 
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Nice but not true sadly " In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as "Fooles holy day", the first British reference. On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed"
 
These guys knew the difference. I believe upwards of 20,000 escaped slaves served with British Forces in the revolutionary war...mainly with Army, but plenty found their way aboard. This incident occurred during the war of 1812.

"As HMS Victorious lay at anchor in Lynnhaven Bay, off Norfolk, in the early morning hours of 10 March 1813, a boat approached from the Chesapeake shore.1 Its occupants, nine American Black men drew the attention of the sailors in the guard boat circling the 74 gun ship. The men were runaway slaves. After a cautious inspection, the guard boat’s crew towed them to the Victorious where the nine Black men climbed up the ship’s side and entered freedom. This scene would be repeated many times during the coming twenty-one months. American Blacks came individually and in both small and large groups seeking escape from slavery within the wooden hulls of the British Navy."
Further to that, it seems that we formed a unit of "Colonial Marines" from escaped slaves as well.
So another one to us, we thought of Colonial Marines a long time before Robert A Heinlein did. In your ******* face Bugs. I am not sure if service guaranteed citizenship, but it certainly meant freedom from slavery in the American States.
 
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I read somewhere that amongst sea farers the Royal Navy was something of a cushy billet. Commercial ships sailed with just enough crew as required to man the ship to maximise profits. The Navy sailed with enough men to man the guns: vastly more than was needed just to move the ship about the globe. Food and grog we’re guaranteed and prize money was a possibility. Discipline was brutal but Georgian times were a brutal age thus the navy was not much more savage than elsewhere.
Legend has it that my local pub was founded by an Portuguese guy with prize money from Trafalgar.
 
Lotta bollocks in that post about the calendar. A lot.
Prior to 1752 the start of the year was not April 1st.
It was Lady Day, March 25th. The significance was that it was deemed to be the conception date of Christ, exactly 9 months before Christmas Day.

The reason why Britain stuck with the Julian calendar when most of Europe had changed to the Gregorian in 1582 was because the change was decreed by the Catholic Church in the name of Pope Gregory. Protestant and Orthodox countries were not going to accept any dictate from Rome, Even though we bit the bullet and changed in 1752, the Orthodox churches did not, for much longer. Russia only changed after the 1917 revolution - did you ever wonder why the Soviet Union commemorated the October revolution in November ?
And the Greeks didn’t change until 1922.

Lady Day, being the start of the year, was the start of the financial year as well, when any annual dues such as rents were payable. Because of the “loss” of 11 days in 1752, all these sums came up 11 days earlier, and so it was decided that the dues would henceforth be slipped to April 6th, which is why the financial year in UK is set at this date.
The Julian calendar had long recognized that the solar year was 356.25 days and compensated that quarter day by a leap day every four years. However, no account was taken of the four minutes or so by which the astronomical year differed from 356.25
Gregory’s calendar corrected this by not having a leap year every hundred years except where the year is divisible by 400. That’s why 2000 was a leap year, but 1900 was not.
 
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Russia only changed after the 1917 revolution - did you ever wonder why the Soviet Union commemorated the October revolution in November ?
Another interesting factoid is that the celebration of the Battle of the Boyne, July 1 1690, got shifted to July 12. The Bluenoses changed the date of their annual bellendery cos the Pope told 'em to, as my Granny never tired of telling me.

Isn't there also some confusion over the celebration of Prince Philip's birthday too?
 
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