How Nigeria Got Her Name

British  journalist for The Times  Flora Shaw, 

 On January 8, 1879, wrote an article titled "Nigeria", stating the need for the protectorate to be uniformly named to differentiate them from other comonies. She suggested the name "Nigeria" obviously from the River Niger.

She later married Lord Frederick Lugard, then High Commissioner of the Northern Protectorate.

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The Niger Royal Company Territory Treaty

 Although, The Niger Royal Company pledged a free trade with the Niger Deltan Chiefs, they privately signed other documents nullifying free trade.

When Chief Jaja of Opobo tried to export palm oil independently, he was immediately sent in exile for onstructing commerce. He was however pardoned in 1891

Nigerian Oil In The 18th Century

 

Nigerian Palm Oil and Palm Kennel was highly sought after in 1870 and this replaced the thirst for slaves. Niger Delta locals sold to the highest bidders and Native Chiefs became extremely wealthy from such trades.

One of these Chiefs, worthy of mention is Chief Jaja of Opobo

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July, Julius Ceaser

 July originally fell on the fifth month of the year in the Roman Calendar and it was called Quintilis. Quintilismeans "fifth" in Latin. It was later renamed July in honor of Julius Ceaser in 44BC because July was his birth month.

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When The Uk Did Not Need Visas

Until 1984, Travel Visa was  not a requirement to travel to the United Kingdom and it cost less tha  a hundred naira while domestic flights was about five naira in Nigeria.

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Dantata And His Groundnut Pyramids

Alhaji Alhassan Dantata invented the groundnut pyramid in Kano in the early 20's. It was a symbol of wealth and also a tourist attraction. He was a very prominent groundnut merchant who supplied the Royal Niger Company with most of it's groundnut demands. Each pyramid held about 15,000 bags of groundnut, stacked up to await supply.

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HEELS WERE MADE FOR MEN

In Persia, around the 10th and 15th century, Soldiers wore heels to fasten their feet on stirrup. Persian migrants took the heel trend to Europe and it became popular with aristocratic men. The higher the heels, the grander.

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WHAT ANCIENT FEEDING BOTTLES LOOK LIKE

Pre historic feeding bottles came in form of ceramic little bowls with a little hole on it's side. Most of these bottles came in animal shape designs which was probably meant to make babies smile.

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A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT AUTOMOBILES

Long before Karl Benz invented the first gas powered car in 1886, Nicholas-Joseph Cognot, an artillery officer from France, constructed an automobile which ran on steam. It had three wheels and was quite heavy. The automobile ran for 20 minuites at 3.6km per hour while carrying four people in 1769.

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ORIGIN OF BEST MAN DUTY AT WEDDINGS

Having a best man at a wedding originated from 16^th century Germanic goths. Many marriages were not built on love, rather it was mostly a financial obligation.

Like most financial arrangements back in the day, there was a possibility of the bride’s family backing out at the last minute or the bride trying to run away.

The groom’s best man was his best sword man and he often stood close to the couple to protect the groom in case there is any trouble or the bride needs to be kidnapped to complete the wedding process.

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JAPAN'S 217 YEARS OF ISOLATION

In 1635, Japan was kept in total isolation from the rest of the world for 217 years. This was because of the Sakoku edict of 1635, which was made to eliminate negative foreign influence in Japan by the Shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Lemitsu.

Such negative influence includes slave trade and the small pox epidemic as well abreast to Japan’s sovereignty. The edict restricted trade with foreigners and banned visits by foreigners into Japan. It was not until 1852 when the American Navy forced them to open their markets. The isolation helped them build a unique culture.

In 1860, about 76 Samurai warriors were sent to the United States on a very rare diplomatic visit, the youngest Samurai, Takeshi Omojiro was nicknamed Tommy by the American media and had a song composed in his name due to the friendly disposition, compared to the hard dispositions of the other Samurai warriors

PISS PROPHETS

Piss Prophet was the name given to the people in Europe in the 16th century, wo claims say, use people’s urine to diagnose a disease, pregnancy or to check their future. They tasted and observed the color of the urine to get results. Piss prophets however seem to be one of the key players in the journey of urinalysis. Galen (AD 129 – 200) came up with a urine diagnostic tool called the urine wheel. It consisted of twenty colors. It was believed that the color of the urine was an indication of the health status of a person.

BEFORE LIFE JACKETS WERE INVENTED

Before the advent of Life Jackets, United States Sailors were trained on how to wear Mattresses over their body during th World War 1 as a precautionary safety measure. This of course was not very effective in water.

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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT TOILET PAPER

People were originally embarrassed to buy toilet paper until the Hoberg Paper Company rolled out it's "Charmin" toilet paper in 1928, which carried the logo of a beautiful woman. #Random History

ORIGIN OF FALSE EYELASHES

In ancient Rome, Pliney the Elder falsely claimed that long eyelashes showed chastity in women and excessive sex made women's eyelashes fall out.

Many women were more than willing to prove their innocence by trying different ways to make their eyelashes look longer.

In 1899, eyelashes became even more popular again when people started implanting hair into eyelids with needle. They used a cocaine laced solution to dull the pain of the implantation process.

In 1911, Anna Taylor patented the false eyelashes and they became extremely popular when in 1916 D.W Griffith decided that Seena Owens, who was an actress in his movie "Intolerance", needed eyelashes that would "brush her cheeks". So he had his wig maker glue false eyelashes on her eyelid with spirit gum normally used for false beards.

Claims were Ms. Owens looked great on screen and in 1920, many actresses started using false lashes. Some said it helped to reduce the glare from the electric light.

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ORIGIN OF TOWELS: THE TURKISH BATH STORY

Towels were originally used by Turkish brides during the Ottoman empire in the 17th century. They started out as flat woven cotton cloth that was narrow in length and was called Pestimel. The Pestamel  was favored during Turkish baths because it had the tendency to mop water up and dry out quickly.

It was not until the Industrialization of the 19th century that towels were made for the general public use.

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HISTORY OF WEDGE SHOES

In 1936,Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo created the Wedge shoes due to scarcity of steel and other materials needed for shoe making with traditional heels..

He improvised with other materials like Sardinian Cork and came up with wedges, which became an instant hit.

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ORIGIN OF CORNROWS

during the Transatlantic slave trade, an African King from Guinea Bissau who was captured by the Portuguese, Benkos Bioho, was said to have created a means of sending messages and drawing maps for escape with the use of tightly woven cornrows on women's hair.

They mapped out their escape routes and sent signals as well as cryptic messages with different woven hairstyles.

They also hid gold and seeds in the cornrows, which helped them survive for a period of time when they escaped.

when they wanted to escape, women will weave their hair in a style called departes and it was tied with a bun on their head while curved cornrows showed the routes they will take to escape.

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HISTORY OF FOOTBALL IN THE WORLD

The Sheffield Football Club is the first and oldest football club in the world.

It was founded in 1857 by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest. The duo were instrumental in the writing of the first set of rules governing the game.

Recognized as the first and oldest FC in the world by Football Association and FIFA they played against each other until the Hallam FC was formed in 1860. The idea of a football club by Creswick and WIlliam was to create a community for football.

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ORIGIN OF NAIL EXTENSIONS

In the old days, Chinese, Greek and Egyptian royalty used extremely long fake nails made of gold, ivory and bones as a status symbol, since their daily routine did not require any strenuous task. Many decades down the line however, an American dentist, Frederick Slack, broke his thumbnail in 1954. He experimented with a few dental chemicals to create an artificial nail to cover the broken one. Frederick Slack and his brother Tom continued to experiment. They came up with a more marketable and realistic form of nail extensions and they started the successful acrylic nails company, Patti Nails. #Random History