Fact 125: Did pirates ever actually force people to walk the plank?

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Fact 125: Did pirates ever actually force people to walk the plank?


No, is the answer there is no historical (documented) evidence that pirates ever force people to walk the plank.

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Fact 196: When was MI5 formed?

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Fact 196: When was MI5 formed? MI5 was formed in 1909 by Vernon Kell, Vernon Kell was also the first director General of MI5, and Vernon Kell was director General from 1909 to 1940. There have been 17 Director Generals the current Director General is Ken McCallum, interestingly the first Director General to be (officially) publicly named was Dame Stella Rimington (Director General from 1992 to 1996) basically until 1993, the Prime Minister would appoint the MI5 Director General in secret and MI5 didn't disclose the Director Generals names to the general public.
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Fact 141: Who invented the first telescope?

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Fact 141: Who invented the first telescope? The person who first created the telescope wasn't Galileo Galilei (Italian) in 1609 it was in fact Hans Lippershey who was a Dutch glasses maker and had a glasses shop, his telescope was made in 1608 however someone else whose name was Jacob (or James) Metius (who is also Dutch and a Lenz, glasses maker) he made his telescope in 1608 a few weeks after Hans Lippershey, and zacharias janssen (yes he was also Dutch) is thought to have created his compund microscope/or telescope, sometime between 1590 and 1618, basically, he created a microscope that used a telescope for the magnification, however, however these dates were only mentioned 20 years after his death by his son so the dates are unreliable and technically it is a compund microscope so you could argue it doesn't count, until you see a picture.     *This image is of Galileo Galilei.
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Fact 47: Did Roman legionaries punch their names into their helmets?

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Fact 47: Did Roman legionaries punch their names into their helmets? It was not uncommon for Roman legionaries (foot soldiers) to carve or punch their names into their helmets. In fact, there is a roman museum (Verulamium Roman Museum UK) that has a helmet with the name of the soldier punched into the helmet. It was discovered in 1880 and is said to have the name of the foot soldier name PAPIRI [VS]. roman Legionaries also decorated their helmets with plums to make them look taller and intimidating to their enemies because nothing says big and  intimidating like decorating your helmet with plums ( Prunus domestic)!  minimum height to enlist in the Roman Army was  5'10” it was later changed  to 5'8″ when they became desperate for recruits. and plums are only   2–7 centimetres. The roman helmet is only  37cm. 5'10” +  7 centimetres =  6 feet ¾ inch so the solder could have looked  slightly taller.
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