A few people have asked if I have a list of my history threads. I don't keep one as they're a spontaneous thing mostly. But here's a few I remember. Let's start with how the Knights Hospitaller had one of the largest airforces in Europe after WW2. Really. https://x.com/garius/status/11...
Then you've got Able Seacat Simon. The only cat ever to be awarded the Dickin Medal, the highest award for gallantry and service that a British military animal can be awarded. https://x.com/garius/status/14...
How the allies used the 650 year old Anglo-Portuguese alliance twice in WW2 to avoid disaster. https://x.com/garius/status/13...
How WW2 rationing almost killed Wensleydale cheese, and DID eviscerate a lot of British cheesemaking history and tradition. https://x.com/garius/status/10...
Hidden soldier doodles under the Western front, and how they show us that WW1 soldiers were really just like us. https://x.com/garius/status/14...
The long forgotten Battle of Pulo Aura, where Commodore Dance defeated a French battle squadron with only some trade ships, tins of paint, and by MASSIVELY overplaying a bad hand. https://x.com/garius/status/13...
Jim Steinman's long lost Batman Musical, and how you can still listen to bits of it if you know where to look. https://x.com/garius/status/13...
Mary Burchell, the Mills & Boon author who wrote books to fund her efforts to get Jews to safety before WW2. https://x.com/garius/status/12...
Robert Smallbones, minor diplomat creator of the Smallbones scheme, through which up to 40,000 Jews were safely evacuated to Britain before WW2 (the scheme's success was kept secret to avoid spooking the British public about "too many furriners"). https://x.com/garius/status/13...
The impact of being offered a good cup of tea in the Blitz. https://x.com/garius/status/11...
How military terms shape our language, and why a lot of football clubs have a 'Kop End' https://x.com/garius/status/13...
How a bunch of Greek Cypriot wrestlers started Soho's Spanish quarter. https://x.com/garius/status/12...
How Britain became the first, and so far only, nation to achieve and then abandon independent space flight. And poor little Prospero, the abandoned satellite still pinging us from space. https://x.com/garius/status/12...
Spencer Perceval and James Stephen. The surprise bromance between an evangelical Prime Minister a playboy lawyer that helped force through the abolition of slavery in the UK. https://x.com/garius/status/11...
And (obviously) the recent tea one on the crazy wartime logistics and politics of tea rationing. Start here: https://x.com/garius/status/14...
There's likely a bunch more tbh. I'm a history slut. The threads just tend to happen when I get excited about, or am reminded of, something. I don't really keep track of them. If any longterm followers can think of history ones I've missed, feel free to add them to the replies.
OH GOD YES SORRY. Can't believe I forgot about the Emu War! 😄 https://x.com/garius/status/11...
Oh yes! General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord. Hero of Weimar. Forgot about him. well remembered, @Maggie_Perhaps https://x.com/garius/status/11...
Oh yes. The Yoghurt Wars. I should really include it for posterity, although that's what was spawning the questions. https://x.com/garius/status/14...
I also keep a public playlist of Interesting Things I have found and watched over on Youtube, on my Youtube channel. If you want a weird mix of history talks showing up on your Youtube homepage rather than lies and fascism, follow it here: https://www.youtube.com/playli...
Think that's a reasonable summary of all my social media history activity. To be clear, doing this stuff doesn't really make me any money. But I do spend a lot of money on weird old books. So book fund donations are a good way to guarantee future threads😆https://ko-fi.com/garius
MORE! Guinea Pigs and how the Royal Navy discovered, then forgot, how to cure scurvy. Cheers @lrbudd for the reminder. https://x.com/garius/status/11...
Admiral Collingwood, forgotten hero of Trafalfar https://x.com/garius/status/14...
The Battle for Itter Castle, when Wehrmacht and US forces fought alongside each other in WW2. https://x.com/garius/status/14...
How Tesco Clubcard invented modern datamining https://x.com/garius/status/15...
Hugh Thompson Jnr. The Helicopter pilot who refused to stand by and do nothing during the massacre at My Lai in the Vietnam war. https://x.com/garius/status/15...
A short thread on Hadrian's Wall, which we didn't believe was Hadrian's for much longer than you'd think. Also the glory of footnotes! https://x.com/garius/status/15...
The truth behind the relationship between Lancaster Bombers and the US A-Bomb project. https://x.com/garius/status/14...