Shadowing Practice: Weird History Stories You Didn't Know [NO AI] - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today we're going over some of the weirdest stories in history you've probably never heard of before.
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The Alexamenos Graffito It's 1857, and an excavation team is hard at work on a dig on Palatine Hill in Rome.
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This area was once the heart of the ancient city, and right now they're working on a building called the Domus Gelotiana, a property once owned by the infamous Emperor Caligula.
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More on him later.
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At first glance, it seems like it's going to be a pretty standard excavation
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but they have no idea they're about to uncover something that will change the way we understand the world's biggest religion forever.
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As they dust off one of the walls in the building, one of the crew spots something.
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Etched into the plaster, appears to be a guy on a cross with the head of a donkey, and standing before him, a man holding out his arms.
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Puzzled by the very crudely drawn doodle, he calls the others over to come check it out.
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Scratching their heads, the crew stares at this funny drawing.
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Was this something Caligula had drawn?
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Nope, not even close.
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And this story is way more interesting.
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Hey, Alexaminos, look at this!
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Oh my Jupiter, what a lame -ass god!
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You guys are jerks!
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See, back in the late 2nd century, this building was once part of a training school for Imperial Page boys.
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Among the students here was a boy named Alexamanos, and unlike the others, instead of worshipping the standard Roman gods,
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he's chosen to follow a god that the other boys feel is very weird and pretty lame.
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Unlike Jupiter and Mars, who were shredded to the gills and immortal, this god, who Alexamanos called Jesus, was neither of those things,
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And instead, he died in the most humiliating way possible.
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He was crucified.
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Now, it's hard for us today to imagine just how embarrassing
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it was for an ancient Roman to die strong up on a cross.
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Can you make this quick?
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This is, like, super embarrassing.
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But evidently, it was so humiliating that laws were passed that prevented Roman citizens from being crucified to save them their dignity.
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So now you may be thinking, okay, so this kid drew Jesus, but what's with the donkey head?
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Well, at the time, similar to how they're viewed today, donkeys were associated with stupidity and foolishness.
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But also on top of that, or maybe related to that actually, there were widespread Roman myths that Jews and Christians practiced donkey worship.
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They even had a word for it, enolatry, which later became used to describe insults for a person who loved stupid things.
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But back to the boys.
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To make it super clear that this sick burn was exclusively for Alexamanos, the bully adds his finishing touch and inscribes the words,
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Alexamanos worships his god, spelled incorrectly and phonetically, the way a kid would do, of course.
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Little did that young Roman boy know, he had just created one of the most significant pieces of wall art in human history.
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I mean, how could any Roman at the time ever imagine Christianity becoming the largest religion in the world?
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Back at the excavation, the men have no idea what this drawing is, but a Jesuit scholar by the name of Raffaele Garucci later inspects the graffiti
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and realizes that this doodle was in fact a depiction of Jesus Christ.
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He publishes a thesis on the drawing, which draws the attention of biblical scholars from around the world.
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The doodle is dated with various methods, and it's determined that whoever drew it did so in the late 2nd to early 3rd century,
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making this graffiti meant to make fun of some guy named Alexamanos, the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus Christ ever discovered.
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But remember how this building once belonged to Emperor Caligula, and how I said he was kind of infamous?
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Well, here's some of the wacky things he did to earn that reputation.
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Caligula's War with Neptune.
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It's around 40 CE, and the Roman Emperor Caligula stands on the coast of Gaul with legions of soldiers behind him.
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His men are exhausted, having just marched thousands of miles to the very edge of the Roman Empire.
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But as they stare out across the sea, they are filled with excitement.
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The coast of Britannia is visible in the distance.
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They've trained their whole lives for this moment, and their minds race with thoughts of battles to come, and hopes of one day returning to Rome with tales of glory.
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But Caligula had other ideas.
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They are about to wage of war
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but instead of sailing over the channel to invade britain the emperor gives them an order
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so weird they can't believe what they're hearing well i guess for caligula it wasn't
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that weird see as roman emperors go he was about as
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unhinged as they get he regularly claimed to be a god and cosplayed as Mars and Jupiter, even having full -blown conversations with statues of other gods.
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What's that Venus?
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You think I should kill everybody?
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Why don't you mind your own business Apollo?
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This is a private conversation.
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He also allegedly loved his horse so much
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that he built it a stable made out of marble and tried to make it a Roman console.
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Everybody, this is Instatatus and he's your new boss.
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but caligula that's a horse don't don't you think that's a little um crazy
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he regularly kills people who criticize him even people he just finds a little annoying
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and back on the shores of gaul in his latest act
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of insanity instead of ordering his men to conquer britannia he
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tells them they're going to war against neptune god of the
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sea a few soldiers laugh nervously until they realize he isn't
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joking with a straight face caligula orders them to march into the sea
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and pillage it slightly reluctant
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and very confused the battle -hardened soldiers begin collecting seashells like five -year -olds on vacation
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but their humiliation doesn't end there caligula then issues another even wilder command now kill it
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what what what do you mean what do you mean what do i mean am i speaking french kill the sea
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like that yes and so his army attacks the sea slashing and stabbing the waves with their swords.
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And somehow it gets even weirder.
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Hey, buddy, you doing okay?
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I think I've suffered an on -the -job injury.
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There's a reason you wouldn't pick a fight with the ocean.
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Just like there's a reason why Morgan & Morgan is America's largest injury firm.
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You don't need to be fighting the king of the sea to be injured on the job.
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And much like Caligula didn't really give a squat about his men here, many big businesses don't care about you either.
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that sounds pretty good how do i know
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and morgan by going to for the people .com serious history
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or you can click the link in the description
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and fill out their form to see if you have a case it's
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that simple and you don't pay anything unless you win awesome thank you morgan and Morgan, for helping us make this video.
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Oh, and by the way, did we really fight an army of mermen in 40 AD?
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Well, no, obviously.
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But it did make for a sweet ad.
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The Emperor declares himself victorious over Neptune, and then orders the construction of a lighthouse as a monument to his victory.
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He then turns his army around to go home.
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Mission accomplished.
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But Caligula's dominion over the sea doesn't last long.
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Less than a year later, in 41 AD, as he leaves the theater, he's hacked to death by the Praetorian Guard, led by some angry senators.
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And while Caligula's war against Neptune definitely tracks with all of his other unhinged antics, there's a good chance that it may be propaganda written by his haters to tarnish his legacy.
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Some modern historians now say the whole spectacle was most likely a way to humiliate his troops, who were afraid to go through with the invasion of Britannia.
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Still, it's pretty wild to think that 2 ,000 years ago, the most powerful army in the world marched thousands of miles just to splash around in the ocean and collect some shells.
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But, believe it or not, this wasn't the first time a leader of a mighty empire ordered his men to attack the sea.
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Over 500 years earlier, the Persians did it first.
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Xerxes vs. the Hellespont It's 480 BC,
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and Persian king Xerxes the Great is on the march with a vast and mighty army stretching for miles behind him, seeking to finish his father's life mission of conquering Greece.
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He has assembled nearly 200 ,000 men and marched them to the western shores of Asia Minor.
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Now all that separated his army from Europe was a tiny strait called the Hellespont.
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With an army this huge, the Greeks would stand no chance, but the sheer size of his army inadvertently created a new problem.
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How do you get this many men to the other side?
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Xerxes has a large fleet of ships, but ferrying his ginormous army would require literally thousands of trips back and forth.
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This seems like it would take way too long, and also looks super uncool.
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So Zergzies asks his engineers to come up with a solution.
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It seemed like a simple enough problem for his crack team, but the Hellaspawn would prove to be one of Zergzies' most capable foes.
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His engineers propose that they construct a bridge by lining up hundreds of anchored ships side by side.
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They would then run cables and planks between the ships to act as a bridge for the army to cross over.
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Zergzies gives it the green light, and the engineers get to work.
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It takes weeks of backbreaking work, but finally the bridge is complete.
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The engineers step back and marvel at their work.
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Xerxes is elated.
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His army is ready to cross, but just as they're about to step onto the bridge, a violent storm rushes in and destroys it in an instant.
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Humiliated by the setback, Xerxes does the only thing he can think of.
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He crashes out.
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First, he orders the engineers who built the bridge be executed, which is pretty predictable as far as ancient rulers go.
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But the men weren't the only ones who needed the lesson.
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The straight itself deserved a good -ass whooping too.
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And so he orders his men to deal out 300 lashes to the Hellespont.
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Not wanting to end up like the engineers, his men nervously approach the water and begin whipping.
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Now brand it with the hottest of irons to make it feel my rage.
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Did I say to stop?
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Now make the water feel bad too!
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F* you water!
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F* you!
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This is for destroying a f*ing bridge!
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Dry son of a b*h!
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With the Hellespot suitably punished, and hopefully having learned its lesson, and Xerxes instructs the engineers he hasn't killed yet to construct another better bridge.
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And you better believe this time they get it right.
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Xerxes' army successfully crosses the Hellespont.
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His engineers keep their heads, and the Persians march into Europe, all the way to Greece.
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But as we saw with the story of Caligula from 500 years later, the water didn't really learn its lesson.
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Wilmer MacLean It's July 18th, 1861, and American grocer Wilmer McLean sits on the porch of his farmhouse near Manassas, Virginia.
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After years of hard work, he can finally enjoy the quiet life he had built for his family.
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But that quiet life is about to get a whole lot louder.
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Suddenly, he hears drums in the distance, and when he looks in the direction of the noise, he sees troops marching towards his home.
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These were Confederate soldiers, and the general -in -command, P .G .T.
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Beauregard, asks Wilmer if they can use his house as a headquarters.
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In reality, he isn't really asking, he's telling him what's going to happen.
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And whether he likes it or not, Wilmer is about to play a bigger role in the Civil War than anyone could ever imagine.
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The Confederate general and his men haven't been in the home long, when on July 18th, a Union cannonball crashes through the kitchen and lands in Wilmer's fireplace place.
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As most sensible people would, he looks at the gaping hole in his kitchen wall, looks back at the cannonball, and starts to think, you know, this war thing ain't for me.
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At the time, he had no idea
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that the cannonball he was staring at was the first shot
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fired of the American Civil War at what would be later known as the Battle of Bull Run.
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Wilmer decides to do the best thing he can do to get away from the fighting.
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He purchases a property roughly 120 miles south in another part of Virginia and hits the road with his family.
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They travel for days, each mile feeling a little safer and just that little bit farther from a war that found its way to his doorstep.
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They move into their new home, and finally, they're safe. For now.
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The war that everyone thought was going to be a quickie drags on and becomes the bloodiest conflict in American history.
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Four years pass, and though they had won many of the initial conflicts in the war, by 1865, the Confederacy was hanging on by a thread.
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In April of that year, Confederate General Robert E.
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Lee is being pursued by Union troops led by Ulysses S.
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Grant.
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They reach the town of Appomattox, Virginia, starving, having marched without food for days.
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Hoping for just a moment to catch their breath, they're almost immediately found by Grant's men, who surround them outside the town courthouse.
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General Lee realizes that the game is up.
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Rather than send his men to die, he decides to surrender.
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He looks around the town for a nice house that would be a suitable place to end the war.
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They find one to their liking, and Lee and Grant approach the house together and knock on the door.
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You gotta be f*ing kidding me.
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The two generals ask Wilmer if they can use his living room to sign the documents that would certify General Lee's surrender.
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He reluctantly agrees, and his home is once again filled with Civil War troops.
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At least nothing comes crashing through the wall this time but maybe it's even worse.
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See, many of the men standing in Wilmer's living room realize they're witnessing a huge moment in American history,
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and so they quickly scan the house looking for mementos to prove they were there.
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Against his protest, Wilmer's table, curtains, rug, chairs, pretty much anything that wasn't bolted down,
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is grabbed by both Confederate and Union soldiers who walk out the door with their souvenirs.
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It seems so weird that the Civil War started and ended in the home of the same guy, hundreds of miles apart, but it actually happened.
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Although, in terms of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this next guy might have had it worse.
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Masabumi Hosono It's April 10th, 1912, and Masabumi Hosono is standing on a dock in Southampton,
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England, about to board his ship to return home.
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For the last two years, he'd been working in Russia, studying their railway systems, and he's excited to finally be on his way back to Japan to share what he's learned with the government.
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Even more so, he's looking forward to finally seeing his family again.
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As he stands in line, Masabumi and all the other passengers marvel at the largest and most luxurious ship they've ever seen,
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the RMS Titanic, a brand new state -of -the -art vessel that just made its maiden voyage a few days ago.
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Masabumi eagerly boards the ship with his second glass ticket, and soon it sets sail for New York.
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He and his fellow passengers are busy enjoying the luxurious new vessel,
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and have no idea they will be first -hand witnesses to one of the most legendary disasters at sea.
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Against all odds, Masabumi will survive, but weirdly, surviving kind of ruins his life.
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On April 14th, Masabumi is woken by the sounds of someone pounding on his door.
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Startled, he puts on a life jacket, and heads up to the deck to see what just happened, and it does not look good.
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The ship has hit an iceberg, and its bow is slowly tipping into the water.
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He races towards the top deck, but just before he makes it, he's stopped by a ship steward.
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The steward takes one look at Masabumi's Asian appearance, and assumes he's a third -class passenger, and he orders him to go back inside to his cabin.
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Quietly accepting his fate, Masabumi heads back inside, but thoughts of his wife and children start filling his mind.
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Desperate to see them again, he turns around and finds a different route to the deck where he spots passengers crowding the remaining lifeboats.
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As the Titanic tilts into the sea, terrified women and children are loaded into the lifeboats.
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While the crew push back panicked men who are desperate to live, Masabumi frantically scans the scene and sees Lifeboat 10 is about to be lowered into the freezing Atlantic.
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In a last call, a conductor shouts that there's room for two more.
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Masabumi watches as a man jumps into the lifeboat.
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Thoughts of his wife and children flash before his eyes, and, on instinct, he shoots his shot.
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Masabumi jumps into the lifeboat as its final passenger, and the boat is quickly lowered into the dark ocean.
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With women and children sobbing around him, he grabs an oar and helps to row them all a safe distance from the sinking ship.
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Surrounded by the painful cries of the survivors slowly freezing to death in the waters around them, they watch as the Titanic is finally pulled underwater.
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At 8 a .m., roughly 6 hours after the Titanic sank into the ocean, a ship called the Carpathia rescues Lifeboat 10 and takes the passengers to New York.
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From there, Masabumi travels to San Francisco and nervously boards another ship to make the trip across the Pacific back to Japan.
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He arrives safely and is relieved to have survived the whole ordeal, but when he gets home, he doesn't quite receive the warm welcome you'd expect.
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Rather than being greeted with a ticker tape parade by people
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happy to see one of their own return alive after such an event, the entire nation of Japan is embarrassed that a fellow Japanese man chose not to die honorably.
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The newspapers label him a coward and report that he pushed women
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and children out of the way to save his own skin.
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One report claims that he disguised himself as a woman so he could sneak into the lifeboat.
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He's fired from his job and the rest of Japanese society ostracized him through a practice known as Murahachibu,
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something reserved for people who dishonor their workplace, family, or Japan itself.
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Masabumi lives the rest of his life in shame.
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Everywhere he goes, he's constantly told he should have gone down with the ship.
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In 1939, he dies at the age of 68, and for decades after his death, his family continued to be mocked and shamed because he He dared to stay alive.
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But in 1997, a researcher working on an exhibition about the Titanic comes across a first -hand account written by Masabumi
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while he was aboard the rescue ship Carpathia.
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It directly contradicts a lot of the negative news stories about him, and helps to change public opinion.
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Finally, almost 60 years after his death, Masabumi Hosono's honor is restored.
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Kind of a downer way to end this video, but hey, that's history.
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And if you like these historical stories, the algorithm thinks you're really going to like this video we made here.
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What You'll Learn
This video helps you build two key speaking skills: narrative flow for storytelling (perfect for sharing historical anecdotes) and expressive emphasis to highlight surprising details. You’ll also practice explaining complex ideas simply, like how cultural context shapes humor—critical for clear communication in English.
Listen For These Sounds
Notice the connected speech in phrases like "hard at work on a dig" (linking "at" and "work") and "doodled doodle" (reducing "doodled" to "doodl’d"). The speaker also uses casual reductions, such as "kinda" (for "kind of") and "gonna" (for "going to"), which are common in conversational English. These links and reductions keep the dialogue natural—listen closely to mimic them.
Say It Like a Native
Mirror the speaker’s rhythm by stressing key words: "WEIRDEST stories," "CHANGE the way we UNDERSTAND," "MOST significant piece." Pause before big reveals (e.g., "Little did that young boy know…") to build suspense, just like the video does. For practice, use a shadowing app or shadowing site to repeat lines aloud, matching the pace and emphasis. Tools like shadowspeak can help you compare your pronunciation to the speaker’s, making it easier to master native-like flow. Learning English with videos and the shadowing technique turns passive listening into active skill-building—start with short clips from this video and gradually increase length.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were shredded · was crucified · were passed |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've probably never heard · They've trained · I've suffered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who loved · people who criticize · executed, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.