Michel de Notredame, aka Nostradamus (1503-1566), seems to have predicted his own death.
On July 1, 1566, his assistant rose to leave him for the evening, saying, “Tomorrow, master,” to which Nostradamus said, “Tomorrow at sunrise, I shall no longer be here.”
The next morning he was found dead from an attack of dropsy.
The two men who laid the Mason-Dixon line gave it its name. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon laid the line sometime between 1763 and 1767 at 39°43’26” north latitude. Originally it was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Later it marked the line between slave states and free states.
The last viceroy of India was not Lord Mountbatten. Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979) was India’s last British viceroy, or governor general, from August 1947 to June 1948. Chakravarti Raj agopalachari (1879-1972) then served as governor-general of India’s interim government from June 1948 to January 1950, when the position was abolished.
The Apache leader Geronimo (1829-1908) was known to his tribe as Goyathlay, meaning “One Who Yawns.” The nickname Geronimo is probably a corruption of the Spanish name Jeronimo.
The head of the British Secret Service called C or CSS. He is not called M, his name in the James Bond stories, although the head of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) in World War II was called M for a while.
Peeping Tom was a tailor who dared to look at Lady Godiva as she rode through Coventry. In 1040, Lady Godiva’s husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry, agreed to rescind a tax on the town if Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets. Godiva asked everyone to observe custody of the eyes,…
The earl ranks higher, but is by no means at the top. From highest to lowest, the line of peerage runs as follows: Duke and Duchess Marquess (or Marquis) and Marchioness Earl and Countess Viscount and Viscountess Baron and Baroness