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A review by dave_daines
The Greatest Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy by Rick Beyer
4.0
This was a very fun book to read - doesn't take long - and is full of so many interesting facts and stories.
A couple of my favorites:
1) I was familiar with the story of Chinese explorer Zheng He from the 1400s, but didn't know the extent of his fleet. He had 300 vessels and commanded 28,000 men, as they explored as far as the southern tip of Africa. Less than 30 years later, the Chinese emperor decided on an isolationist policy, and that was the end of that. Can you imagine how different our world would be if the Chinese came to the Americas 100 years before the Spanish and Portuguese?
2) The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but had to stop earlier since they had run out of beer.
3) James Garfield wasn't killed by an assassin, but 16 doctors who turned a non-lethal injury into a 20 inch infected canal through their ineptitude.
4) Another reason Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president: He forced college football to open up the game (100 players died that season) by changing the rules to allow the forward pass!
5) And here's the saddest: A mis-translation of a Japanese official's comment about surrender terms resulted in the use of the atomic bomb in WWII. The official meant to withhold comment about the surrender terms until they were received through official channels, and used the word "mokusatsu" which has two meanings - "no comment" - and "ignore". The Japanese News Agency reported it as "ignore" and so Truman decided he had no choice but to drop the bombs.
A couple of my favorites:
1) I was familiar with the story of Chinese explorer Zheng He from the 1400s, but didn't know the extent of his fleet. He had 300 vessels and commanded 28,000 men, as they explored as far as the southern tip of Africa. Less than 30 years later, the Chinese emperor decided on an isolationist policy, and that was the end of that. Can you imagine how different our world would be if the Chinese came to the Americas 100 years before the Spanish and Portuguese?
2) The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but had to stop earlier since they had run out of beer.
3) James Garfield wasn't killed by an assassin, but 16 doctors who turned a non-lethal injury into a 20 inch infected canal through their ineptitude.
4) Another reason Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president: He forced college football to open up the game (100 players died that season) by changing the rules to allow the forward pass!
5) And here's the saddest: A mis-translation of a Japanese official's comment about surrender terms resulted in the use of the atomic bomb in WWII. The official meant to withhold comment about the surrender terms until they were received through official channels, and used the word "mokusatsu" which has two meanings - "no comment" - and "ignore". The Japanese News Agency reported it as "ignore" and so Truman decided he had no choice but to drop the bombs.