Historic Sneezes

[And Beat Him When He Sneezes]

I seem to remember some sort of joke book about the role of sneezes in history, but I was trying to think of actual sneezes which really did have some historical significance. Some I thought of:

1. All the people who turned to snuff in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, thus contributing to the profitability of European colonization of the Americas;

2. That assistant of Edison's whose sneeze became the world's first moving picture; and

3. Sneezes that spread the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1919.

Others?

[vampire_sneeze]

well, it's not sneezing, but when Napoleon's troops were marching through Russia n the dead of winter, he was annoyed by the men rubbing their noses on their sleeves. So, he orders all of the gold buttons from the dead soldiers uniforms to the sleeves of the remaining to discourage this act.

that seems so very mean

[doggo]

well, it's not sneezing, but when Napoleon's troops were marching through Russia n the dead of winter, he was annoyed by the men rubbing their noses on their sleeves. So, he orders all of the gold buttons from the dead soldiers uniforms to the sleeves of the remaining to discourage this act.

that seems so very mean

Well that's interesting! I wonder what it helped - did the men then just march with their noses running down their faces? That would have been worth a masterpiece or two in oils I say!

And of course the battle of Borodino didn't go as well as it could have for the French army as Napoleon himself was sick with a nasty cold.

[Tangerine]

And of course the battle of Borodino didn't go as well as it could have for the French army as Napoleon himself was sick with a nasty cold.

Do they have this kind of detailed information in school textbooks? I probably would have exploded if I'd ever read it in school when I was a kid.

[Guest obsessive_freak]

And of course the battle of Borodino didn't go as well as it could have for the French army as Napoleon himself was sick with a nasty cold.

Do they have this kind of detailed information in school textbooks? I probably would have exploded if I'd ever read it in school when I was a kid.

Well that information actually comes from Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' but it would be amazing to get some validation of that fact in a textbook... Especially hearing my histry teacher read it aloud

[doggo]

And of course the battle of Borodino didn't go as well as it could have for the French army as Napoleon himself was sick with a nasty cold.

Do they have this kind of detailed information in school textbooks? I probably would have exploded if I'd ever read it in school when I was a kid.

LOL no, but behold Tolstoy:

Many historians say that the French did not win the battle of Borodino because Napoleon had a cold, and that if he had not had a cold the orders he gave before and during the battle would have been still more full of genius and Russia would have been lost and the face of the world have been changed.

... and later:

Moreover, the assertion made by various writers that his cold was the cause of his dispositions not being as well planned as on former occasions, and of his orders during the battle not being as good as previously, is quite baseless, which again shows that Napoleon's cold on the twenty-sixth of August was unimportant.

(War and Peace, chapter XXVIII)

I love Tolstoy! "which again shows that Napoleon's cold on the twenty-sixth of August was unimportant"... He's hilarious.

But unimportant or not, he still has to include descriptions of this wretched cold as the story processes. As later:

He rode hurriedly from the battlefield and returned to the Shevardino knoll, where he sat on his campstool, his sallow face swollen and heavy, his eyes dim, his

nose red, and his voice hoarse, involuntarily listening, with downcast eyes, to the sounds of firing.

(Chapter XXXVIII)

English translation in Gutenberg, if you wish to read more about how a great master writes about Napoleon's insignificant but still quite nasty cold.

[vampire_sneeze]

well, my information i got from a book called "Stupid History" i forget who wrote it 'tho