Due to the hot and dry climate in Egypt, ancient papyri have survived intact, allowing historians to study the sophisticated techniques employed by Ancient Egyptian physicians. Whilst couched in magic and ritual, the Egyptians possessed a great deal of knowledge of healing herbs and repairing physical injuries, amongst the normal population and the workers responsible for building the great monuments of that nation.

Modern research has shown that these builders were not slaves but highly respected and well-treated freemen, and the care and treatment given for injuries and afflictions was centuries ahead of its time. Early paid retirement, in case of injury, and sick leave were some of the farsighted policies adopted by Ancient Egyptian medicine, luxuries that would rarely be enjoyed by most workers until well into the 20th Century.

The Egyptians made sure that the laborers were fed a diet rich in radish, garlic and onion, which modern researchers have found to be extremely rich in Raphanin, Allicin and Allistatin. These powerful natural antibiotics would certainly help to prevent outbreaks of disease in the often-crowded conditions of the workcamps.

Ancient Egyptian practitioners were also adept at performing eye-surgery, no surprise in the desert where foreign objects blown into the eye could cause irritation. Innovatively, the Egyptian doctors cured Night-Blindness by feeding the patient powdered liver, rich in Vitamin A.

The physicians drew upon a great store of knowledge in the Peri-Ankh, the Houses of Life; here, students were taught and papyri documenting procedures were stored. Physiotherapy and heat-therapy were used to treat aches and pains, and Ancient Egyptian medicine included repairing and splinting broken bones, as shown by successfully healed skeletons. Priest-doctors also practiced amputation, using linens and antiseptics to reduce the chance of infection and gangrene, and there is some evidence that they employed prosthetics where needed.

Anecdotal evidence shows that the Ancient Egyptian physicians adopted an ethical code centuries before the Hippocratic Oath, with one such inscription stating that 'Never did I do evil towards any person' on the tomb of Nenkh-Sekhmet, chief of the Physicians during the 5th Dynasty.

The information remaining about the medicines and herbs used by the Egyptian physicians is remarkable. Whilst some of the most outlandish cures had little effect, many of the herbs they used have been shown to have positive effects upon ailments and are still used by modern herbalists, thousands of years later.

• Honey: An excellent antiseptic, used to treat wounds, and an ancient cure that is now increasingly used by the British Military to treat burns.
• Willow: A concoction of this was used to treat toothache and willow bark formed the basis of modern aspirin.
• Mint: Used to treat gastric ailments and mint is another cure that is still used today.
• Pomegranate: Used to treat infestations of parasitic worms, and modern scientists have found that the high tannin content of this fruit actually does paralyze worms, known to Ancient Egyptian medicine as the 'snakes of the digestive system.

The Ancient Egyptians also practiced dentistry and were fully aware of draining abscesses, extracting teeth, and even making false teeth.

The Egyptian physicians knew how to suture wound, placing raw meat upon the wound to aid healing and stimulate blood production. They also used honey, known for its antiseptic qualities and ability to stimulate the secretion of infection-fighting white blood cells. Ancient Egyptian priest-doctors used moldy bread as an antibiotic, thousands of years before Fleming discovered penicillin.

Much of the Egyptian knowledge of physiology undoubtedly derived from their practice of embalming the dead, which allowed them to study the structure of the body. They made some accurate observations about which part of the body was responsible for certain tasks and, despite some inaccuracies due to the limitations of their equipment, they were fine physicians and were unrivalled until the Islamic Golden Age. Ancient Egyptian medicine outstripped both the Romans and Greeks in the level of knowledge and sophistication.

source: https://explorable.com/ancient-medicine

A treasure trove of information on ancient Egyptian burial practices — and actual treasure — had been languishing in the basement of Cairo's Egyptian Museum until recently. The mummy of a teenage boy was discovered in 1916 at the Nag el-Hassay cemetery in Southern Egypt but was never examined. However, a new study explains that after the mummy's rediscovery, a team of researchers used computerized tomography (CT) scans to inspect the body without damaging, or even unwrapping, it. Their incredible discovery was that he was buried with 49 amulets made of gold and other precious materials, as well as a gold mask. He's now being called the "golden boy"

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1200440/what-digital-scans-of-a-mummy-told-researchers-about-egyptian-death-rites/

Believing that they would benefit militarily by allying themselves with a powerful nation, the Colonies formed an alliance with France against Great Britain during the Revolutionary War.

According to this first military treaty of the new nation, the United States agreed to provide a defensive alliance to aid France should England attack.

American diplomats Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee negotiated in France on behalf of the American Colonies. The treaty is written in both English and French.

The two sides also agreed that neither France nor the United States would make peace with England until the independence of the United States was recognized. As part of the alliance between "the most Christian King and the United States of North America," neither party could conclude a peace "with Great Britain without the formal consent of the other."

France also recognized the independence of the United States, as dependent upon a military victory. The treaty stipulated that "The essential and direct End of the present defensive alliance is to maintain effectually the liberty, Sovereignty, and independance absolute and unlimited of the said united States, as well in Matters of Gouvernement as of commerce."

The United States and France agreed "not to lay down their arms, until the Independence of the united states shall have been formally or tacitly assured by the Treaty or Treaties that shall terminate the War."

source: archives.gov

The dismembered body of Florence Polillo is found in a basket and several burlap sacks in Cleveland. The 42-year-old woman was the third victim in 18 months to be found dismembered with precision. It sparked a panic in Cleveland, where the unknown murderer was dubbed the “Mad Butcher.”

In June 1936, another head, and later a headless body, turned up and police were unable to identify the victim. Even when a replica mask of the victim’s face was displayed at the Great LakesExposition, the victim remained a mystery, while the Mad Butcher continued killing.

By the summer of 1938, with the body count into double digits, the Cleveland police were desperate to find the Mad Butcher. One suspect, an actual butcher named Frank Dolezal, was interrogated for 40 straight hours until he confessed to killing Florence Polillo. However, he subsequently changed his story many times and killed himself in his cell before his guilt could be determined.

In reality, though, few authorities believed Dolezal was actually the killer—it is believed that the real suspect was relatively prominent and politically connected, and as a result the police department trumped up the case against Dolezal. All official police records of the matter have been destroyed.

The Mad Butcher’s attack stopped in Cleveland after the Dolezal’s suicide.

Victims of The Mad Butcher

Because most of the victims were hobos or prostitutes there is little information about them, in
fact only two victims were positively identified. In fact a reason that most victims could not be identified is because many bodies were not found up to several months after their death.
Another reason is the fact that many of the bodies were heavily mutilated or decapitated that dissuaded anyone from identifying them. One victim was described as being a white man between 25 and 30 years old, medium height and muscular build with traces of light brown hair on his body.

The two victims that were identified included Edward Andrassy, a smalltime hood, and Florence Polillo, a 41-year old prostitute. There is very little Polillo them except that they never did find her head. (Unsolved Mysteries) Andrassy on the other hand had a little more info as he had a minor run in with the law for carrying a concealed weapon. He also was known to live around Kingsbury Run and was often seen drunk and getting into fights. There is dispute over the possible identity of another victim in which dental records indicate one of the vicitms was a Mrs. Rose Wallace. She had washed ashore near Lake Erie, killed sometime in 1936.

President Gerald R. Ford pardons Tokyo Rose. Although the nickname originally referred to several Japanese women who broadcast Axis propaganda over the radio to Allied troops during World War II, it eventually became synonymous with a Japanese-American woman named Iva Toguri. On the orders of the Japanese government, Toguri and other women broadcast sentimental American music and phony announcements regarding U.S. troop losses in a vain attempt to destroy the morale of Allied soldiers.

An American citizen born in Los Angeles, Toguri was in Japan at the time the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. She graduated from UCLA in 1940 and hoped to become a doctor, but when an elderly aunt living in Japan became ill, Toguri’s family sent Toguri to take care of her. She left the United States in July 1941 carrying an identification card, but no passport. When rumblings of war between Japan and the U.S. reached a crescendo later that year, she tried to return to the U.S. but was denied because she did not have proof of citizenship.

Toguri experienced alienation in both the U.S. and Japan. Although an American citizen, she frequently encountered anti-Japanese racism while living in California. For their part, the Japanese government considered her an enemy alien and unsuccessfully tried to force her to renounce her U.S. citizenship. They also refused her request to be interned as a foreign national. Left to fend for herself in Japan, she found a job as a translator and typist for Radio Tokyo. Privately, Toguri refused to stifle her pro-American views on the war and as a result earned the trust of two Allied POWs who were forced to work at the station. The POWs were tortured until they agreed to write phony reports of Allied troop movements and casualty reports that a number of unidentified Tokyo Roses then broadcast. When the war ended, intense efforts to capture the notorious broadcasters began.

Upon her capture in 1945, Toguri insisted that she was forced into her traitorous role by the Japanese government and swore that she had never broadcast false military reports, limiting her shows to light musical fare while smuggling food and medicine to the Allied POWs. Nevertheless, Toguri was labeled a traitor for airing songs like My Resistance is Low. After a year’s imprisonment in Japan, Toguri was released and returned to the United States, only to be promptly re-arrested for treason. The judge, who later admitted having anti-Japanese prejudice, sentenced her to 10 years in prison and fined her $10,000. She was released early in 1956 for good behavior, but was immediately given an order deporting her back to Japan. Over the next 20 years, Toguri fought for a pardon from three presidential administrations with the help of family members, attorneys and the POWs she had helped at Radio Tokyo. Finally in 1977, after an episode of 60 Minutes was broadcast revealing Toguri’s true story and highlighting her ongoing fight for justice, President Ford granted her clemency just before leaving office. Toguri died in 2006.

source: fbi.gov/history | history.com/this-day-in-history

What can’t Tom Cruise do? Last summer he turned 60 and he’s still doing death-defying stunts, sometimes just for holiday videos. He even had his biggest-ever moneymaker just last year, over four decades into his storied career. Cruise is a fount of positivity, working on his birthdays and generally paying it forward. Now we’re learning he helped save a highly acclaimed movie from being butchered by one of the most notorious Hollywood execs.

The New Yorker profiled Tár director Todd Field, who made his directorial debut over 20 years ago with 2001’s In the Bedroom. The drama premiered at Sundance and it got picked up by a powerful distributor. Unfortunately that distributor was Miramax, whose then-honcho Harvey Weinstein was notorious for cutting up films in an attempt to make them more palatable to wide audiences. Field was afraid that would happen to his film, too.

“I was weeping in the bathroom,” Field recalled. But he had an even more powerful friend, with whom he’d acted in Eyes Wide Shut (and whose cousin, William Mapother, had a major in the film).

“I called up Tom Cruise and said, ‘Something terrible has happened,’” Field remembered. “He basically said, ‘This is how you’re going to play it. It’s going to take you six months, and you’ll beat him, but you have to do exactly what I’m going to tell you to do, step by step.’ ”

What was the plan? To let Weinstein slice and dice it up, wait for it to test badly. After that, Field would remind him of all the raves it got from Sundance, saying they should release it in its original form.

That’s what he did, and that’s one reason why In the Bedroom went on to gross several times its budget and accrue five Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.

Field also rehashed a story he’s told elsewhere: That it was Cruise who encouraged him, then an actor, to get into filmmaking. You’re going to make movies,” Cruise told him over dinner. Field told him a dream project was a film of Andre Dubus’ short story “Killings,” but he was worried he couldn’t get the rights. “You’re just making excuses,” Cruise told him. “Figure it out.”

The lesson: If you ever have a problem or need a word of encouragement, just contact your good pal Tom Cruise.

(Via The New Yorker)

Vasa was the world’s most high-tech warship when it first set sail. It only navigated about 1,300 meters before sinking in front of horrified onlookers.

Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. Its rather peculiar story has gone down in history: despite being one of the Swedish navy’s biggest achievements and among the most spectacular warships ever built, Vasa sank within twenty minutes of setting sail, just 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628.

“The warship survived the first blast of wind it encountered on its maiden voyage in Stockholm Harbor,” writes Lucas Laursen for Archaeology. “But the second gust did it in. The sinking of Vasa took place nowhere near an enemy. In fact, it sank in full view of a horrified public, assembled to see off their navy’s – and Europe’s – most ambitious warship to date .

Upon completion, Vasa was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, she was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull.

Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.

Source : earthlymission website

Lee Iacocca’s income and net worth

An American entrepreneur and philanthropist, Lee Iacocca had a net worth of $150 million at the time of his passing in 2019. Allentown, Pennsylvania, is the place of Lee Iacocca’s birth. He then earned an industrial engineering degree from Lehigh University.

He then continued on to complete his education at Princeton University as a Wallace Memorial Fellow. He began his professional career at Ford as an engineer but finally discovered his true calling in sales. At Ford, he advanced rather fast through the ranks. After being employed in 1946, he rose through the ranks to become the Ford Division’s vice president and a general manager by 1960.

He was appointed vice president of the Car and Truck Group in 1965. He was appointed executive vice president in 1967. He was elected president of Ford three years later. Ford enjoyed tremendous growth during his tenure there, and he contributed to the creation of well-known Ford vehicles including the Ford Mustang, Ford Escort, and Lincoln Continental Mark III.

Unfortunately, he was also in charge of designing the Ford Pinto, which had a serious defect in its design. He had disagreements with Henry Ford II and was ultimately let go in 1978. When he took over at Chrysler, the firm was in dire straits, but he fully turned it around. After retiring in 1992, he devoted the ensuing decades to literature, philanthropy, and politics.

Salary and Benefits of Lee Iacocca

Lee Iacocca was renowned for being one of the first CEOs to accept a salary of just $1 per year in exchange for a larger equity payout. He requested in 1983 that the Chrysler board award him $1 in salary and 337,500 shares that would vest over a three-year period. Those shares were valued at $4.2 million when they were given.

The value of the shares had quadrupled three years after Chrysler had a significant turnaround. Lee’s total remuneration for 1986 was $20,577,491 after he exercised previously given shares. In today’s dollars, after accounting for inflation, that is equivalent to earning around $45 million. The CEO of Ford received a total remuneration of $4 million in the same year, and the CEO of GM earned $1.5 million.

Real estate

In 1993, Lee invested $4.25 million in a residence in the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles. An 11,000-square-foot house is part of the property, which is located close to the Hotel Bel-Air and the Bel-Air Country Club. Lee made arrangements for a side gate to connect his property to the upscale hotel, enabling him to go there and back whenever he liked. Lee’s surviving daughters listed the house for $26 million in January 2020.

source: gizmotable.com | britannica.com | biography.com

The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at about 3:40 a.m. on Friday 31 August 1888 in Buck's Row (now Durward Street), Whitechapel. Nichols had last been seen alive approximately one hour before the discovery of her body by a Mrs Emily Holland, with whom she had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road. Her throat was severed by two deep cuts, one of which completely severed all the tissue down to the vertebrae. Her vagina had been stabbed twice, and the lower part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, causing her bowels to protrude. Several other incisions inflicted to both sides of her abdomen had also been caused by the same knife; each of these wounds had been inflicted in a downward thrusting manner.

One week later, on Saturday 8 September 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately 6 a.m. near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. As in the case of Nichols, the throat was severed by two deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh—plus her small intestines—being removed and placed above her right shoulder. Chapman's autopsy also revealed that her uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina had been removed.

At the inquest into Chapman's murder, Elizabeth Long described having seen Chapman standing outside 29 Hanbury Street at about 5:30 a.m. in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown deer-stalker hat and dark overcoat, and of a "shabby-genteel" appearance. According to this eyewitness, the man had asked Chapman the question, "Will you?" to which Chapman had replied, "Yes."

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning hours of Sunday 30 September 1888. Stride's body was discovered at approximately 1 a.m. in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. The cause of death was a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left carotid artery and her trachea before terminating beneath her right jaw. The absence of any further mutilations to her body has led to uncertainty as to whether Stride's murder was committed by the Ripper, or whether he was interrupted during the attack. Several witnesses later informed police they had seen Stride in the company of a man in or close to Berner Street on the evening of 29 September and in the early hours of 30 September, but each gave differing descriptions: some said that her companion was fair, others dark; some said that he was shabbily dressed, others well-dressed. Eddowes's body was found in a corner of Mitre Square in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Stride. Her throat was severed from ear to ear and her abdomen ripped open by a long, deep and jagged wound before her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder, with a section of intestine being completely detached and placed between her body and left arm. The left kidney and the major part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids. A triangular incision—the apex of which pointed towards Eddowes's eye—had also been carved upon each of her cheeks, and a section of the auricle and lobe of her right ear was later recovered from her clothing. The police surgeon who conducted the post mortem upon Eddowes's body stated his opinion these mutilations would have taken "at least five minutes" to complete.

The extensively mutilated and disembowelled body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on Friday 9 November 1888. Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other viscera from her body placed beside her foot, about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.

A hijacker who became known as D.B. Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington State. He had $200,000 in ransom money in his possession.

Cooper commandeered the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing a flight attendant something that looked like a bomb and informing the crew that he wanted $200,000, four parachutes, and “no funny stuff.” The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where authorities met Cooper’s demands and evacuated most of the passengers. Cooper then demanded that the plane fly toward Mexico at a low altitude and ordered the remaining crew into the cockpit.

At 8:13 p.m., as the plane flew over the Lewis River in southwest Washington, the plane’s pressure gauge recorded Cooper’s jump from the aircraft. Wearing only wraparound sunglasses, a thin suit, and a raincoat, Cooper parachuted into a thunderstorm with winds in excess of 100 mph and temperatures well below zero at the 10,000-foot altitude where he began his fall. The storm prevented an immediate capture, and most authorities assumed he was killed during his apparently suicidal jump. No trace of Cooper was found during a massive search.

In 1980, an eight-year-old boy uncovered a stack of nearly $5,880 of the ransom money in the sands along the north bank of the Columbia River, five miles from Vancouver, Washington. The fate of Cooper remains a mystery. After an exhaustive 45-year investigation, the FBI in 2016 finally called off its official search

source: history.com