Drinking can be a challenging experience. Drink enough, and it can make almost any event more fun and memorable. Drink too much, and the opposite happens—you forget everything, and what you do remember, you may wish you had forgotten.
But it's not just stag parties and New Year's celebrations. In fact, we're going to take a look at ten historical events in which alcohol definitely played a decisive role.
10. Wedding of George IV
It would be fair to say that when King George III of England announced the engagement of his son and heir George IV to Caroline of Brunswick in 1794, George the Younger was not a fan of the arrangement. For a start, he was already technically married to Mary Fitzherbert, although their marriage was invalid under English law. He also preferred a carefree life of wine, women, and gambling, but in the end, he was left with little choice. George IV had accumulated so much debt through his excessive spending that neither his father nor Parliament would bail him out unless he found a suitable Protestant wife and produced an heir.
Enters Caroline of Brunswick . She had a perfect pedigree, but she had nothing else to do. Supposedly, the first words George uttered when he saw his future bride were: "Harris, I am not well; please give me glass of brandy ".
And that glass of cognac was followed by another… and then another… well, you get the idea. George could barely stand being sober in her presence, and when it finally came time to tie the knot on April 8, 1795, the Prince Regent was so drunk he had to be carried down the aisle. He slurred his vows and at one point even burst into tears. The ceremony was followed by what we imagine was an incredibly awkward reception, and then, finally, the wedding night, when George was unable to perform his “royal duty” because he passed out in the fireplace. lattice .
9. The Eggnog Riot
West Point has a long and varied history that dates back to the birth of America. Strategically located on the Hudson River, it was a prized military post during the Revolutionary War and gained notoriety when Benedict Arnold tried to hand it over to the British. Then, in 1802, it became the nation’s first military academy.
In 1817, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became superintendent of the academy and developed a curriculum that is still in use to this day. After several years in charge, Thayer decided that discipline at West Point was declining, largely due to drunkenness. Alcohol had already been banned, but of course everyone still got drunk, and faculty generally looked the other way unless the offense was particularly egregious. But in 1826, Thayer put his foot down and banned alcohol, even at that year’s Christmas party. Not surprisingly, the cadets ignored him and smuggled several gallons of whiskey onto campus a few days earlier. Then, on Christmas Eve, they got drunk eggnog .
The commotion started with loud singing. It wasn't that bad at first, but things got serious when two academy captains, Ethan Hitchcock and William Thornton, tried to put a stop to the party. Hitchcock literally read the Riot Act to a group of cadets, but instead of dispersing, they armed themselves with sticks, stones, and swords in search of a fight. One of them even shot a captain when he tried to open a door. The captains called the authorities when they realized that a pine cone had hit a fan, and the drunken cadets took advantage of the opportunity to completely trash the barracks and barricade the doors and windows.
The next day, everyone was hungover, wondering what they had done the night before. Ninety cadets took part in the riot, including Jefferson Davis, the future president of the Confederacy. Ultimately, however, only 19 were court-martialed, plus the soldier who had allowed them to bring booze onto campus. Eleven were expelled.
8. Field of Golden Cloth
In June 1520, King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France held a two-week summit at Balingham, near Calais, to strengthen the bond between their two nations. Both kings were keen to show off their wealth and luxury to the other, so the event became known as the Field gold brocade .
Every day there were huge feasts. There was plenty of food, the wine was never-ending, and the music was raucous. There were dances, there was a theater, and there was even made especially for this occasion dragon kite , on which both royal symbols were intertwined.
And of course there were plenty of games to entertain the people. Knightly duels were the most popular spectacle, but struggle was also a welcome sight, especially when the weather turned bad. Then, one day, after drinking a few glasses of wine, Henry did the unthinkable - he broke protocol and challenged King Francis to wrestling match , threatening to punish his sweet ass. Not wanting to look like a jabroni, Francis accepted the challenge and met Henry inside the squared circle for a literal royal rumble.
Both kings were young lions in their mid-20s, but in this case Francis proved the best of the bunch, easily besting his English counterpart. Henry, however, took the defeat lightly and proposed an archery contest for a rematch, in which he emerged victorious.
7. Andrew Jackson's Inauguration
On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as the seventh president of the United States. Following the swearing-in ceremony in front of the Capitol Building, Jackson invited a crowd of approximately 21,000 spectators to join him at the White House for a reception open doors .
Unfortunately for him, most of the crowd took him up on his offer. Soon the White House was filled to the brim with rich and poor, upper class and working class, all eager to congratulate new president. The hoarseness was not helped by adding alcohol, and before you knew it, the furniture was overturned, dishes and glasses were smashed on the floor, and there were dirty footprints everywhere. One of the participants, Margaret Smith , described the scene this way:
"Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a commotion ensued that it is impossible to describe - those who entered could not go out again through the door, but had to climb out of the windows."
President Jackson himself eventually escaped through a window and took refuge in a nearby hotel. Eventually, Jackson's steward came up with the brilliant idea of placing large buckets filled with whiskey punch , and it managed to lure most of the crowd like moths to a flame, but the carpets smelled of cheese and booze for months after.
6. Signing of the Constitution
In September 1787 55 delegates from every U.S. state except Rhode Island attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The meeting culminated in the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, although only 39 delegates agreed to sign the document. Everyone knew it was a momentous moment, so the delegates celebrated in the best way they could: by having a blast.
Two days before the signing, all 55 delegates gathered at a local tavern and threw a party, as if the British were preparing to invade again. Curiously, the bill for that historic evening has been preserved, so here is what the two framers of the Constitution drank: 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 42 bottles of porter The range includes beer and hard cider and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.
The party that went down in the history books cost £90, which is more than $20,000 today. That included a two per cent commission fee from the hotel owner, as it seemed that some of the delegates were becoming too noisy with his furniture.
5. Washington's Entry into Politics
Staying with the Founding Fathers, we'll focus on the Founding Father (not a real word) of them all, George Washington, and how alcohol helped him enter politics. By the time he was in his early 20s, Washington was already a distinguished military man thanks to his role in the French and Indian War, so a political position was the next natural step for him.
In 1755, 24-year-old Washington ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the colony's elected representative body. But the future father of the country lost his first campaign, receiving only 40 votes , and his opponent had 271. How so? His opponent squandered his voters on beer, wine, whiskey, and rum punch.
Lessons had been learned, however, and three years later Washington ran for office again, and this time he was not stingy with his drink. His campaign office included ready 144 gallons of rum , beer, and hard cider awaited the thirsty voter ready to cast his ballot for George Washington. Washington won easily, with 331 votes, and began his career in politics.
4. October Revolution
The October Revolution was one of the most important episodes in modern Russian history, allowing the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, to seize power and eventually form the Soviet Union. It all began on November 7, 1917 (or October 25, old style) in Petrograd, now known as St. Petersburg, when the Bolshevik Red Guards captured the Winter Palace. Of course, not everyone was on their side. The Bolsheviks were facing a civil war, and they had to prepare for it. But there was one problem: when they captured the Winter Palace, they also captured the largest private wine collection in the world.
Lenin couldn't just deny access to the people. His whole point was that the wealth of the aristocracy actually belonged to the working masses. So what followed was the granddaddy of all keggers, as the Petrograders were completely smashed on the Tsar's personal stash. This predictably led to drunken mobs, looting, and street violence, but Lenin hoped they'd shake it off in a few days.
They are not. As the Bolshevik playwright Anatoly Lunacharsky said: “The whole Petrograd drunk." Nothing the Bolsheviks did could stop the thirsty masses. Walls were built around the cellar, but they were destroyed. Guards were posted, and the booze was only just beginning to be sold. They poured the wine into the streets, and crowds of people drank it. from the ditch Every prison cell in the city was filled with drunken marauders. There was only one solution. Martial law was declared, and the Bolsheviks had to wait for weeks until the booze finally ran out.
3. Lincoln's assassination
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is already an infamous moment in history, so we won't dwell on it too much. We'll just look at the role alcohol played in the proceedings.
First up is John Wilkes Booth, who first went to Saloon near Ford's Theatre and had a couple of drinks to strengthen his resolve. His accomplice George Atzerodt , who was assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, did the same thing, except that alcohol had the opposite effect on him. Even though the Vice President was sitting all alone in his hotel room, Atzerodt couldn't bring himself to do it, so he just spent the night drunkenly wandering around town.
Last but not least, we have an officer John Frederick Parker , a Washington policeman assigned to protect the president. Had he been present, would he have been able to stop Booth from assassinating Lincoln and changing the course of history? We will never know, because during intermission, Parker decided to leave the president and go to the nearby Star Saloon to have a few drinks with Lincoln's footman and driver.
2. Burning of Persepolis
In the mid-4th century BC, Alexander the Great invaded the Achaemenid Empire and captured the Persian capital of Persepolis in 330 BC. When he entered the city, Persepolis was one of the greatest metropolises the ancient world had ever known. When he left, it was nothing more than smoldering ruins. The Burning Persepolis was one of Alexander's most infamous acts, but the question remains - was he drunk?
Almost all ancient historians agreed that Alexander and his men were drunk when they burned the place. They celebrated their victory by looting, feasting, and, of course, drinking all night long. But the historian Diodorus Siculus points the finger at a woman named Thais , an Athenian woman who approached a drunken Alexander and kept goading him throughout the festivities, telling him what an achievement it would be for him to destroy the pride of the Persians. Which was the ancient equivalent of a "double dare," so apparently Alexander had no choice.
Only one Roman historian named Arrian claimed that Alexander was sober when he burned Persepolis, and that he did it simply as revenge for what the Persians had done to Athens during the Greco-Persian Wars a hundred years earlier.
1. The rise of agriculture
Is Beer Responsible for Civilization as We Know It? Some Say archaeologists , perhaps. We can all agree that the agricultural revolution was a key element in the development of the first human societies. Instead of hunting and gathering, people decided to grow things and then make other things out of them. Places where agriculture flourished soon developed into the first villages and boom! Another ancient civilization is born.
Tradition tells us that early people domesticated grain for bread, but they may have first used it to make beer. This is known as hypothesis"beer before bread" , and as you can tell from the name, it is not a proven theory yet, it is just an idea. It has been around for over 60 years and is gaining more and more acceptance.
The intoxicating effect of alcohol gave it an important ceremonial role. At the moment Natufian culture The Levant holds the record for producing the oldest artificial alcohol, thanks to some 13,000-year-old stone mortars that were used to brew beer, and they, too, are believed to have drunk the spirit during ritual festivals to honor the dead. This may indicate why ancient cultures like the Natufians favored beer
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