History Trivia Thread Reducks

[Pat]

OK easy one: What was the nick-name of Austrian Christian Social Party leader Dolfuss and why?

[Pat]

This is the fascist leader who seized power and defeated the social democrats in a brief civil war.

[Eddie Teach]

Doofus. Because it sounds like his real name.

[Admiral Yi]

Doll Face.  Because he was a strikingly pretty man.

[Syt]

OK easy one: What was the nick-name of Austrian Christian Social Party leader Dolfuss and why?

I ... I don't know. Name's dollfuß, btw.

[Syt]

I looked it up and it's rather cute.

[Pat]

OK maybe not as easy as I thought.

Millimetternich, because he was really short (~150-155 cm)

Floor's open.

[Alatriste]

OK, a really dirty question: although the matter is - understandably - mentioned but rarely, soldiers quartered in barracks during the XVIII and XIX often had to pee in big tanks were urine was stored for weeks or even months. And there was a very good reason for that stinking obligation...

[Syt]

The urine was collected for further use in the gunpowder production. Saltpeter?

[HisMajestyBOB]

The urine was used in leathermaking?
But I think Syt has it.

[Admiral Yi]

So they could test for performance enhancing drugs.

[Alatriste]

The urine was collected for further use in the gunpowder production. Saltpeter?

Bingo. Black gunpowder was roughly 3/4 saltpeter and one of the best sources - if no the best - was human urine. Even after guano replaced it in many applications, soldiers still had to endure this ordeal in order to save some money for the state. Pecunia non olet, they say...

[Martinus]

Ok I will put the question forth before Syt is able to post. It's probably an easy one but I thought it's a fun thing.

Each year Romans would crucify several animals of a single species, while having animals of another species watch it as honored guests. What species were these, respectively, and what was the origin of this strange custom?

[Admiral Yi]

Wolves.  Teat, founders, suckled at.

I guess.

[Alatriste]

I just remembered (even if I can't say where or when I read about this, perhaps Indro Montanelli, or some M. Didius Falco novel).

IIRC the Romans crucified dogs, and the honored guests were geese. They were commemorating the famous occasion in which Gauls tried to take the Capitolium by night climbing the hill and the dogs didn't bark while Juno's sacred geese, good, solid patriotic birds, made such a noise that the Romans woke up in time to repeal the invaders.