History's weird and wonderful facts
22 May 2020
Do you know an historical fact that will make us go 'eww', 'ohh' or 'really!'?
Humanities teacher, Miss Ackers, is challenging pupils to come up with a fact that is funny, bizarre or unbelievable.
Each week the best one will be published here in the Priory Post with a prize awarded for the best over the term.
You can ask your family and friends, search the internet, read or watch Horrible Histories, or divulge something that’s just stuck in your memory!
Email your facts to b.ackers@priory.lancs.sch.uk before Thursday, 12 noon each week. All entries must be factually accurate.
Last week's came in from our Chair of Governors, Mr Burke - very topical for the day and he even threw in a joke! >>
Did you know: Pigeons were used as spies during World War 2
I’ve got a background in aerospace engineering, and worked in aerial reconnaissance for some time (taking photos from above). This has been going on for many years, but interestingly (to me) one of the first examples of using it in wartime was during World War 2, when both the Germans and the British army trained pigeons to fly over enemy territory with a small clockwork camera attached to them. Amazingly it worked quite well, and overhead pigeons were rarely suspected to be spies.
So below are some of the British Secret Pigeon Service of Operation Columba (I don’t know their ranks - but suspect the one in the middle is a Flight Sergeant, haha).
This week's winner is: Rhianne L (Yr9 D4) >>
Did you know: T
he Prussian emperor once kidnapped tall people because he wanted his armies to be tall! They were called the Potsdam Giants?
King Frederick William I of Prussia's military interest was in creating his own personal regiment of extremely tall men. The only requirement for joining the regiment was that recruits had to be over six feet tall. Some of the Giants willingly volunteered themselves for service but many were abducted, sold or even bred into the regiment. This obsession manifested itself in strange ways and the soldiers were treated almost as circus freaks.
