"That Was Then" Trivia

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I'm a HUGE trivia buff----but I don't know how many others we have here----but I thought we'd give it a try, anyway.....

Here we can post ANYTHING from "back then"----whether it's that a loaf of bread cost around 10 cents in 1930----or, something REALLY obscure like that the Aztecs also offered the gods tamales, besides human sacrifices.

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Only pharaohs were allowed to eat mushrooms in ancient Egypt.

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.

In England, in 1558, beards were taxed according to their length.

In 1876, after the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek, native American women used sewing needles to make holes in the ears of Custer's body to help him be able to listen better in his next life.

Dr. Jonas Salk develops a vaccine for polio in 1955.

England was the first country with regular TV service, in 1936. The U.S. were second, in 1939.

Global Warming - 1896

Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius saw that human emission of carbon dioxide would eventually lead to warming. However, because of the relatively low rate of CO 2 production in 1896, Arrhenius thought the warming would take thousands of years, and he expected it would be beneficial to humanity.

When a cat died in ancient Egypt, its owners shaved-off their eyebrows as a sign of mourning.

When I was a kid, my dad's gas station had gasoline priced at 19.9 cents per gallon. There were 'gas wars' going on. The new gas stations were called 'cut-rates', they only pumped your gas, no windshield washing or checking tire pressure. My dad's was full service.

This was all before the gas shortages of the 70's.

In medieval England jurors weren't fed until they reached a decision.

You could get a tin of coke for 13p from Nevins (our local shop) in the old days.

babybird: Do you live somewhere in the British Isles?

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The ancient Romans died their hair with bird droppings.

A 1929 Duesenberg Type J automobile costs approximately $18,000.

The ancient Greeks played cards. In those days aces were known as "dogs".

Early Roman soldiers were paid in
the form of salt, rather than money.

Salt was rare and controlled strictly
by those in power.

The Latin word for this type of payment
is salarium.
This evolved into the English word salary.

A modern expression of a good worker
is "he is worth his salt".

Top ticket price to the first Super Bowl, in 1967: $12.