History's Greatest Beards: From Egyptian Queens to Medieval Conquerors (TRIH eps 491-492)
1853 · Resource
What did Marcus Aurelius, Jesus, and Ragnar Lothbrok all have in common? Apart from their notorious and symbolic deaths, all three men boasted luscious beards. Throughout history, beards have posed quite the conundrum for all those able to grow them. While some Roman emperors chose to outlaw beards in retaliation to the Greek penchant for hipster stubble, others chose to grow them long and strong to demonstrate their machismo and sexual prowess. The question of “to beard or not to beard” is o...
On these timelines: The Rest Is History (podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1853
- Great Famine of Ireland (1845)
- On the Origin of Species (1859)
- Pasteur develops germ theory of disease (1861)
- American Civil War (1861)
- Commodore Perry opens Japan (1853)
- Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861)
- Communist Manifesto (1848)
- British Raj (1858)
- First public demonstration of surgical anaesthesia (1846)
- Italian unification (Risorgimento) (1859)