Fact 154: Where does the word Umbrella come from?

-
Fact 154: Where does the word Umbrella come from?

The word umbrella derives from the Italian word “ombrella”, which originated from the Latin word umbella which comes from another Latin word umbra, this word means shade or shadow.


Popular posts from this blog

Fact 196: When was MI5 formed?

-
Image
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.
Read more

Fact 47: Did Roman legionaries punch their names into their helmets?

-
Image
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.
Read more

Fact 95: Did MI5 ever investigate Agatha Christie for knowing about top-secret government information?

-
Image
Fact 95: Did MI5 ever investigate Agatha Christie of knowing about top-secret government information? Surprisingly yes, one of the greatest detective writers of all time was questioned about her knowledge of code breaking because one of the names of her characters coincidentally had a link to an MI5's secret code-breaking at BletchleyPark. Agatha Christie had a conversation with an MI5 agent\code breaker Dilly Knox who happened to be one of her friends who worked at Bletchley Park all about her knowledge about code breaking because of what was happening at Bletchley Park. He basically asked her where did the name Major Bletchley (the character) had come from Agatha Christie then told him all about how she was actually stuck on a train near Bletchley (Agatha Christie was going from Oxford to London) and so as her revenge for the train delay she named her "least loveable character" after the place.  I would imagine that MI5 breathed a well-deserved sigh of relief as they th...
Read more