1 October: Jimmy Carter

Today is former US President Jimmy Carter’s 100^th birthday, so here are 10 facts about him:

1. Carter was the first American president born in a hospital. the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, to be exact. Carter’s mother, Lillian, worked there as a nurse. Three years later, Lillian would help deliver her future daughter-in-law, Rosalynn.

2. After his father’s sudden death in 1953, Carter left the Navy to manage his family’s Peanut farm in Georgia.

3. He believed in the Civil Rights movement and was the only white man in Plains who refused to join a group to oppose it. Some people boycotted his farm in protest, but Carter still wouldn’t join the group.

4. In 1974, Carter announced that he would run for president in 1976. Since he was a bit of an unknown, he published a book about his life called Why Not the Best? He positioned himself as a political outsider who was scandal free, which after the Watergate scandal increased his popularity. In a close race, he defeated then president Gerald Ford and became the country’s 39th president.

5. He believed in and promoted wind and solar power, and put his money where his mouth was by installing solar panels at the White House. His ideas on this subject weren’t popular. When he left office the solar panels were taken down. However, Barack Obama put them back and even Donald Trump didn’t remove them – they are still there today.

6. He is the only president to have graduated from the United States Naval Academy in in Annapolis, Maryland.

7. He was the first president to use a nickname rather than his full name when sworn into office (Jimmy rather than James).

8. One of Carter’s greatest accomplishments in office was a step toward peace in the Middle East. He brought leaders from the rival countries to Camp David in Maryland, a holiday home for U.S. presidents in 1978. Carter helped create an agreement between the nations called the Camp David Accords that established peace between Israel and Egypt for the first time in history.

9. Things didn’t go so well in 1979 when students from Iran stormed the U.S. embassy in the capital city of Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. Carter unsuccessfully tried to resolve the issue with peace talks. When that failed, he signed off on a secret military rescue, which didn’t go well at all. Some helicopters got stuck in a sandstorm, others had mechanical failures, and one crashed into another aircraft. The rescue attempt killed eight U.S. soldiers and one Iranian civilian. The hostages were still being held during the 1980 presidential campaign, which cost Carter votes. Ronald Reagan won by a landslide.

10. At 56, Carter began what is now the longest presidential retirement in U.S. history. Since leaving the White House in 1981, he’s written more than 20 books, has worked to negotiate peace agreements between nations, create fair elections in other countries, and improve health in developing nations. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Only three other presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama—have received this honour. At 99, he became the longest lived former President ever.

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30 September: The Magic Flute

On this date in 1791,The Magic Flute premièred in Vienna. 10 things you might not know:

1. The Opera was written in 1791, and premiered a couple of months before Mozart died at the age of 35.

2. The libretto was written by Emmanuel Schikaneder. His inspiration is thought to have been the medieval romance Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes, the novel Life of Sethos by Jean Terrasson, and the essay "On the mysteries of the Egyptians" by Ignaz von Born, and tales from folklore.

3. The plot does resemble a fairy tale with a prince called Tamino on a quest to rescue a princess, Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. He is aided on his quest by the bird-catcher Papageno and they are gifted with musical instruments enhanced with magical powers to help them overcome the obstacles on the way.

4. Despite many references to Ancient Egypt and the fact that Tamino is specified as being Japanese, the setting is entirely fictional. It’s a magical land populated with monsters, magicians, and bird-people. This might have been to get around the censorship laws of the time.

5. Schikaneder and Mozart were both Freemasons. So was Ignaz Alberti, engraver and printer of the first libretto. Freemasonry was frowned upon by the Catholic church, so they couldn’t produce an openly Masonic themed work. However, their make-believe world could contain Masonic symbolism, while drawing on other sources, like folklore, as well. The Masonic symbols include repeated use of the number three: three trials, three ladies, three children, three doors to Sarastro’s palace, the balancing of the four elements, earth, Fire, air and Water. There’s also a nod to a Masonic initiation ceremony in Act II.

6. It was originally written in German and the title was Die Zauberflöte. It was written in the form of a Singspiel, a popular format of the time which included both spoken dialogue and musical numbers.

7. The premier took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. The orchestra was conducted by Mozart himself and Emmanuel Schikaneder played the role of Papageno. Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer was cast as the Queen of the Night. Mozart may have written the part for her, so she could show off her vocal range, The Queen of the Night sings an aria called “The vengeance of hell boils in my heart” which calls for her to hit a high F several times, which isn’t easy, so even today it’s an opportunity for a soprano to show off her skill.

8. The overture was not finished until two days before the premiere, meaning the orchestra probably had to sight-read on opening night. This wasn’t uncommon for the time, and Mozart was known for leaving such things at the last minute.

9. Each character has a musical theme, so the audience can tell when a particular character is about to make an entrance. The priest Sarastro’s music is deep, low and slow, while the Queen of the Night’s music is fast and high.

10. The Magic Flute is scored for two flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes, two Clarinets (doubling basset horns), two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones (alto, tenor, and bass), timpani and strings. It also requires a four-part chorus. In addition, Mozart called for a stromento d'acciaio (instrument of steel) to perform Papageno's magic bells. We don’t know what they used for that at the premier, though modern day scholars believe it was a keyed glockenspiel, with a celesta usually used in in modern-day performances.

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29 September: St Michael's Mount

On the feast day of St Michael, here are 10 facts about St Michael’s Mount, a tidal island in Mount’s Bay off the coast of Marazion, Cornwall.

1. The Mount is named for the Archangel (or Saint) Michael. He is the patron saint of fishermen, and there are legends dating back to the fifth century in which apparitions of St Michael guided fishermen to safety past the Mermaids trying to lure them onto the rocks. From there, the island became a place of pilgrimage and by the 11^th century there was a monastery there.

2. Before Christianity, the island was called Karrek Loos yn Koos, which means, in Cornish, "the Grey rock in a wood". In even more ancient times, it might have been known as Ictis, and been a centre for trading Cornish Tin with the ancient Greeks.

3. After the English Civil War, John St Aubyn was appointed as Captain of the Mount. In 1659, he bought the island and his descendants have lived there ever since. At time of writing it is in the hands of Lord St Levan (family name St Aubyn) who inherited it in 2013 from his uncle. There are about 30 other residents, mostly people who work in and around the island. In Victorian times, there were more than 300 islanders.

4. Queen Victoria visited in 1846 with Prince Albert. In commemoration of the event, a brass footprint where she stepped was cast, which is still there today.

5. In 1588, it was from the Mount that the Spanish Armada was first spotted, and the first beacon lit in the chain to warn England of the threat.

6. There is a tropical garden. The warm air from the Gulf Stream and rocks and walls which release the sun’s heat late in the evening mean exotic plants and flowers can be grown here. The gardens are designed to be admired from above and are arranged in vertical terraces. Hence, if you want to work as a gardener here, you’ll need to learn to abseil first.

7. The legend of Jack the Giant Killer began here. According to Cornish legend, the Mount was built by the giant Cormoran, who would terrorise locals and steal their livestock. Until a boy called Jack who lived in Marazion set a trap. He dug a big hole and lured the giant into it by blowing a horn. After that it’s said that Jack joined King Arthur’s court and carried on killing giants.

8. Watching House of the Dragon? St Michael’s Mount is the location for Driftmark.

9. There are similarities between St Michael’s Mount and another tidal island across the Channel, Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. Both are pyramid shaped tidal islands with abbeys on top. Legend has it that when the Normans conquered England in 1066, they were struck by the island's resemblance to their own Mont-Saint-Michel, and so they asked the Benedictine monks to build an equivalent abbey on it. However, it’s more likely that the abbey was already there, with the island having been given to the Benedictines by Edward the Confessor.

10. Most of the island was given to the National Trust by the St Aubyn family in 1954.

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28 September: God Save the King

On this date in 1745 the first performance of God Save the King in a theatre took place. 10 things you might not know about the British National Anthem.

1. This first performance came about after Prince Charles Edward Stuart had defeated the army of King George II at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. When the news reached London that the Young Pretender was preparing to invade England, the male cast of the Drury Lane theatre announced they were gong to form a special unit of the Volunteer Defence Force. That evening they gave a performance of Jonson’s The Alchemist. At the end of the evening, three of the leading singers of the day—Mrs. Cibber, Beard and Reinhold —stepped forward and sang God Save the King.

2. The tune had been around for a long time before that. Nobody knows who actually wrote it. John Bull, Thomas Ravenscroft, Henry Purcell and Henry Carey have all been nominated as possible candidates. It has also been suggested that it was an ancient Irish tune.

3. The lyrics have potentially been around even longer. The phrase “God Save the King” occurs in several places in the earliest English translations of The Bible. It was also used in the navy from 1544. The watchword for the day as “God Save King Henry” and the reply was “Long to Reign Over Us.” Other lyrics, such as “Scatter Our Enemies” and “Confound Their Devices” were often used in prayers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

4. As well as the UK, it’s the anthem for crown dependencies and members of the Commonwealth, perhaps, as is the case in New Zealand, one of two official national anthems.

5. The tune must arouse a measure of patriotic fervour all by itself as there are a number of patriotic songs with the same melody in other countries. The national anthem of Liechenstein, "Oben am jungen Rhein", and the royal anthem of Norway, "Kongesangen" both use the same tune as did the national anthem "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" ("Hail to thee in the Victor's Crown") of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1795. Even Russia used it in "The Prayer of Russians", the imperial anthem of Russia from 1816 to 1833, and Switzerland for the song "Rufst du, mein Vaterland". Not forgetting the US version, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee".

6. Generally in the UK, only the first verse is sung, although there are three official verses and any number of variations which have been adopted on occasions throughout history.

7. It was the first piece of music to be played on a computer. Three years after Alan Turing created a programme which allowed a computer to generate musical notes, A performance of the National Anthem was programmed by Christopher Strachey on the Mark II Manchester Electronic Computer in 1951.

8. The first coronation at which it was sung was that of George IV.

9. At the most recent one in 2023, the only person who didn’t join in the rendition was the King himself, as the song is traditionally sung to him.

10. Jimi Hendrix played an impromptu version to open his set at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. Just before walking onto the stage, he asked "How does it go again?". Hendrix gave it the same treatment as "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

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27 September: The Tonight Show

The first airing of The Tonight Show on US television took place on this date in 1954, making today it’s 70^th anniversary. Here are some facts about it.

1. It started life as a local show in New York, in 1954 when Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., the president of NBC, decided to expand the network's programming past the 11:00 p.m. local news. It became a national show on September 27, 1954.

2. The host of the New York show was Steve Allen, who stayed with it when it went national. He was the youngest host at 32.

3. There have been five more official hosts along with numerous guest hosts and co-hosts. The official hosts after Steve Allen are: Jack Paar (1957–62), Johnny Carson (1962–92), Jay Leno (1992–2009, 2010–14), Conan O'Brien (2009–10), and Jimmy Fallon, the current host who took the helm on February 17, 2014.

4. Johnny Carson is the longest serving in terms of seasons, clocking up 30. He’s not, however, the host with the most episodes to his name. That was Jay Leno as during his tenure, the show began to be shown on more nights of the week.

5. When Leno took over from Carson, he changed the name of the show slightly from “The Tonight Show Starring” to “The Tonight Show With” because he felt Carson was more deserving of star billing. However, current host Jimmy Fallon has reverted back to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

6. The Tonight Show is the world's longest-running talk show and the longest-running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States. It is the third-longest-running show on NBC, after the news-and-talk shows Today and Meet the Press.

7. It was the first late night talk show to have the sitting President of the United States as a guest in 2009 when Barack Obama made an appearance.

8. Originally the show was broadcast live, but in 1959 they began recording the shows earlier in the day.

9. At one time the first 15 minutes weren’t shown all over America as some NBC affiliate channels chose to broadcast a local news round up instead. From February 1965, Johnny Carson rebelled against this and refused to host the first 15 minutes, preferring to wait until the full network was watching before delivering his opening monologue.

10. It’s not just broadcast in the USA. The Tonight Show is also seen around the world. It is broadcast on CNBC Europe, although it will be three days later than the US broadcast.

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26 September: Cassowaries

Today is World Cassowary Day, so here are 10 facts about these birds:

1. Cassowaries are flightless birds belonging to the genus Casuarius and the order Casuariiformes.

2. There are three species - the southern cassowary, the northern cassowary and the dwarf cassowary. There’s also an extinct species called the pygmy cassowary.

3. The Southern Cassowary is the most common, and is the third-tallest and second-heaviest living bird, smaller only than the Ostrich and Emu.

4. The name comes from the Papuan language, “kasu weri” meaning 'horned head'. Cassowaries have a horned structure on their heads known as a casque. Individual cassowaries can often be identified by their unique casque. There has been debate about the function of the structure. One plausible theory is that it helps regulate their body temperature.

5. Cassowaries are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea, The Moluccas, and northeastern Australia.

6. They’re thought to be one of the closest living relatives to Dinosaurs, partly because of the casque, but also their feet and respiratory structures.

7. Their favourite food is fruit, but they are omnivores and will eat just about anything including shoots and grass seeds, fungi, invertebrates, eggs, carrion, fish, and small vertebrates like rodents, small birds, Frogs, lizards, and Snakes. They are the only animals capable of eating some of the poisonous fruit in their habitat. When they eat fruit they swallow it whole and later poo out the seeds, making them important for the propagation of plant life.

8. They are generally solitary but come together briefly in the mating season. Once the female has laid her eggs, she clears off and leaves the male to build the nest, incubate the eggs and raise the chicks.

9. There’s evidence that cassowaries were domesticated in ancient times by the local tribes, rather like chickens today. They are the only indigenous Australasian animal known to have been partly domesticated by people prior to European arrival.

10. They have a reputation for being extremely dangerous and there are records of them killing humans. They are usually quite shy and will avoid people, just don’t mess with them, especially when they are raising young.

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25 September: One hit wonders

Today is National One Hit Wonder Day, which honours all recording artists who had a single hit. Here are ten examples of one hit wonders in the UK:

1. The Vapors – ‘Turning Japanese’ 1980
2. The Knack – ‘My Sharona’ 1979
3. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – ‘Come on Eileen’ 1982
4. Video Killed the Radio Star – Buggles 1980
5. It's Raining Men – The Weather Girls 1982
6. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice 1990
7. The Ketchup Song – Las Ketchup 2002
8. 99 Red Balloons – Nena 1983
9. Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men 2000
10. Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas 1974

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24 September: Cumberland Day

Today is Cumberland Day. 10 things you might not know about Cumberland.

1. Cumberland is a historic county in the UK, bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham  to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish counties of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire to the north.

2. It’s not officially a county any more – in 1974 it was made part of Cumbria.

3. Not to be confused with Cumberland Gap, which is a mountain pass in the eastern United States near the tripoint of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.

4. The name is derived from Common Brittonic and means "compatriots". Cumbria and the Welsh name for Wales, 'Cymru', derive from the same root.

5. Although it’s now absorbed by Cumbria, the name is still used: HMS Cumberland; the Cumberland Fell Runners Club; the Cumberland Athletics Club; local newspapers The Cumberland News, and The West Cumberland Times and Star, and the Cumberland Building Society.

6. And of course, Cumberland Sausages. They are made from minced pork, Thyme, Sage, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and rusk – which acts as a binder. Sausages can only be marketed as Cumberland sausages if they are made in the area.

7. It is mentioned in Macbeth as the kingdom given to Prince Malcolm.

8. It had a county flower, Grass-of-Parnassus.

9. In the Middle Ages, it had its own language as well. It was called Cumbric and is believed to have become extinct in the 12th century.

10. Cumberland included parts of the Lake District, and so was home to England’s highest natural peak – Scafell Pike, and Lake Windermere, the largest natural lake in the UK.

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23 September: Sign Language

Today is International Day of Sign Languages. Ten things you might not know about sign language:

1. Signing is used primarily by the deaf and hard of hearing, but people unable to physically speak, or who have trouble with oral language due to a disability often use it as well.

2. One of the earliest written records of a sign language dates to fifth century BC. In Plato's Cratylus, Socrates says: "If we hadn't a voice or a tongue, and wanted to express things to one another, wouldn't we try to make signs by moving our hands, head, and the rest of our body, just as dumb people do at present?"

3. Diarist Samuel Pepys mentions it too. In his diary, he described a conversation between George Downing and a deaf boy in November 1666: "But, above all, there comes in the dumb boy that I knew in Oliver's time, who is mightily acquainted here, and with Downing; and he made strange signs of the fire, and how the King was abroad, and many things they understood, but I could not…"

4. Today, there is no universal sign language. Each country has its own native sign language; some have more than one. the SIGN-HUB Atlas of Sign Language Structures lists over 200 and states that there may be many more which haven’t been discovered yet.

5. As of 2021, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language is the most-used sign language in the world.

6. In Britain, British Sign Language (BSL) is most commonly used. It’s not, however, the same as the English spoken language. A profoundly deaf person may consider BSL as their first language, and English their second. For example, some English words don’t have an equivalent sign, and a single sign can represent a whole sentence in English. The rules of grammar are different, too. The question ‘What is your name?’ would be expressed ‘Your name what’ along with a raised Eyebrow or tilt of the head to signify a question.

7. It takes seven years to fully qualify as a BSL interpreter.

8. BSL has been around for centuries but only became a recognised language by the British Government in 2003. Some schools even banned it in order to force deaf children to learn English and lip-reading. However, from 2025 it will be possible to study for GCSE in BSL.

9. For names and places or words for which there is no sign, fingerspelling is used. A BSL user may fingerspell their name when first introduced to a new person, but they’ll often have a “sign name” as well, which is shorter so people won’t have to fingerspell the entire name whenever it crops up in a conversation.

10. The British Sign Language Dictionary was published in 1992 and lists over 1,800 signs through pictures and diagrams. The foreword was written by Princess Diana, who was the patron of the British Deaf Association.

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22 September: White chocolate

Today is National White Chocolate Day, so here are ten things you might not know about white chocolate:

1. What is white chocolate, exactly? White chocolate is a confectionery made of Sugar, Milk, and cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids. It's essentially milk chocolate devoid of Cocoa solids.

2. The lack of cocoa solids has led some to claim that white chocolate isn’t Chocolate at all. Others argue that it is indeed chocolate, because it is made from the cacao plant as grinding the nibs produces chocolate liquor, which is then separated into two different products: cocoa solids (used to make darker chocolate) and cocoa butter (used to make the white stuff).

3. The first recipes for white chocolate published in 1869, 1871, and 1872 would have produced a more chewy confection than white chocolate as we know it today. Henry Blakely's 1871 recipe calls for "white sugar, rice flour, arrowroot powder, Vanilla, cocoa butter, and gum arabic" boiled in water.

4. Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter is responsible for the recipe for white chocolate as we know it now. He developed his recipe in 1875.

5. White chocolate wasn’t well received by everyone. In 1916, a confectioner named T. B. McRoberts actually seemed quite horrified by the very idea. He wrote about the rumour that the Swiss had invented a snow White chocolate to reflect the Snow capped Mountains in Switzerland. “I never saw snow-white chocolate, but I would rather see than eat it,” he wrote. This was probably down to assumptions he’d made about how it was produced. The only way T.B. Roberts could imagine such a thing could be produced was by taking darker chocolate and bleaching the cocoa elements out. He envisaged that to do that, they would have to use Chlorine gas, “the "poison gas" of the trenches” which would not only have health implications but would ruin the flavour as well.

6. Talking of flavour, beware of keeping your white chocolate in the Fridge next to things like like Onions or strong Cheese, as white chocolate can absorb these flavours.

7. The first white chocolate bar was produced by Nestle in 1936. The Milkybar.

8. Since 1961 the Milkybar adverts have starred a character called The Milky Bar Kid, a blond child in glasses dressed as a cowboy, who says the catchphrase, "The Milkybars are on me!" Until 2010 the Milkybar kids were always boys, but that year the first female Milkybar kid was selected: Hinetaapora Short of New Zealand.

9. In 2022, white chocolate accounted for about 10 percent of the overall chocolate market.

10. According to Nestlé, white chocolate was originally created as a way to use excess cocoa butter.

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21 September: Perry Mason

On this date in 1957 Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr, premièred. It continued for 9 years becoming the longest running lawyer series ever to appear on TV. 10 things you didn’t know about Perry Mason.

1. The character was created by Erle Stanley Gardner, and before the TV series was the star of 82 novels and 4 short stories. Perry Mason made his literary debut in The Case of the Velvet Claws, which was published in 1933.

2. Erle Stanley Gardner started to study law at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana, but was suspended after just one month for taking more interest in boxing than in his course work. He dropped out and went to California where he studied for the bar by himself and passed in 1911. He found legal practice boring, though, and turned to writing instead.

3. He tried acting as well, but only once. He played the judge in the final episode of the TV series, The Case of the Final Fade-Out.

4. The name Perry Mason came from a magazine publisher called Perry Mason and Company. Gardner subscribed to one of their magazines, Youth’s Companion, as a boy.

5. The actor most associated with the character is Raymond Burr. In fact, Burr holds records for playing the same character most often on screen. However, Burr originally auditioned to play prosecutor Hamilton Burger, but wasn’t successful. He went on to try for the lead role. He might have been unsuccessful there, too, had it not been for the fact that Gardner was sitting in on the auditions. He thought Burr was perfect for the part and insisted he got it.

6. Perry Mason ran for nine seasons, or 271 episodes. There were also 30 made for television films. It would take you ten days to watch all the TV episodes back to back, twelve days if you watch the movies as well.

7. There was a Radio show as well. The radio show first appeared in October 1943 and had a 3,200-episode run.

8. Most of the TV series was in black and white. There was only ever one episode broadcast in colour, and that was The Case Of The Twice Told Twist, about two thirds of the way through season 9.

9. Perry Mason did occasionally lose a case. There are three losses according to The Perry Mason TV Show Book: The Case of the Witless Witness; The Case of the Terrified Typist and The Case of the Deadly Verdict. Also, even though many of the cases featured suspects who were domestic servants, the butler never did it.

10. The Flintstones parodied Perry Mason and Hamilton Berger in their season 4 show Little Bamm-Bamm. They were opposing lawyers known as Perry Masonry and Bronto Berger.

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20 September: Opinions

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, today is La Fête de l'Opinion "Opinion Day". Here are 10 quotes about opinions:

1. We are not troubled by things, but by the opinions which we have of things. Epictetus

2. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Steve Jobs

3. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

4. Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions. Booth Tarkington

5. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell

6. Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes. Voltaire

7. Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself. Anthony Trollope

8. It is much easier to modify an opinion if one has not already persuasively declared it. David Souter

9. The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. Bertrand Russell

10. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Marcus Aurelius

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19 September: Pirates

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Here are 10 facts about pirates:

1. The English word "pirate" is derived from a Greek word meaning “to attempt something” which in time became the Latin word for a brigand. The word buccaneer derives from the French boucanier ‘to cook meat over an open flame.’ The word corsair is from Medieval Latin cursārius, meaning a running, or a course.

2. Records of pirate activity date back to at least the 1400s, with some evidence that piracy existed well before that. The golden age of piracy, however, was from about 1650 to 1720.

3. Pirates commissioned by a government, especially during war, were known as privateers. Examples of privateers are Sir Francis Drake and Captain Henry Morgan, who would never plunder English ships, and were seen as heroes in England while the Spanish viewed them as pirates.

4. It would be easy to assume that pirate ships were anarchies. Every man for himself and all that. However, they were generally subject to strict codes of conduct and operated almost like democracies. While the captain was in charge, there would often be a system of checks and balances. Quartermasters were a counterbalance to the captain and had the power to veto his orders. According to the rules, the “treasure” would be evenly divided between the crew, making sure that pirates who were sick or injured all got an equal share.

5. Punishments for rule breaking were severe. However, walking the plank was rarely, if ever, one of them. Rule breakers might be marooned on an island, whipped or keel-hauled. The latter involved being tied to a rope, thrown overboard, dragged down one side of the ship, underneath it, over the keel and back up the other side. Ship bottoms were usually covered with barnacles, which often resulted in serious injuries.

6. Buried pirate treasure is largely a myth. Captain William Kidd was a rare exception. He did bury some loot when he was on his way to New York to turn himself in and try to clear his name. Generally the loot would be divided up amongst the crew who would more often spend it right away. In addition, loot wasn’t always money or treasure. Sometimes it was things the pirates could use: food, water, alcohol, weapons, clothing, soap, ship’s equipment and especially medicines. A doctor's chest could be worth around $470,000 in today's money. Much of the plunder was perishable goods. Precious stones weren’t as prized as you might think. They were hard to sell, and in any case, people of the time had no idea how valuable they were. There’s a case recorded where a pirate was given a large diamond worth a great deal more than the value of the handful of small Diamonds given to his crewmates. He felt cheated and had it broken up to match what they’d received. Sometimes, if the victims had a better ship than the pirates did, they’d take it.

7. Historians now think that a pirate’s eye patch wasn’t worn because they’d lost an Eye. It was so that one eye would always be adjusted to darkness, so they could see when they went below deck.

8. Most pirates were men. It wasn’t a career generally open to women. Women on a ship were viewed as bad luck and possibly a source of division among the crew who might fight and argue over a woman. However, it wasn’t unknown for women who fancied a pirate’s life to disguise themselves as men. Two famous examples were Mary Read and Anne Bonney who sailed with “Calico Jack” Rackham in 1719. When Rackham and his crew were captured, to avoid being hanged, they not only admitted they were women but claimed to be pregnant. There were probably many more female pirates whose disguises were never detected.

9. Pirates often flew the Jolly Roger, a black flag with a white Skull and crossbones. It was to signal their presence to potential victims and warn them that they should surrender without a fight. If a ship surrendered, the pirates would often not kill anybody at all, but if there was a fight, they didn’t take prisoners. Sometimes sailors would actually join the pirates, since a sailor’s pay was nowhere near what they’d get from sharing the plunder, and they had more rights and protections under the pirate rules.

10. Some more famous pirates include “Black Sam” Bellamy, known as the “Robin Hood of the Sea” and allegedly the richest pirate ever; William Kidd, a decorated sailor and a rich man who set out in 1696 on a pirate-hunting mission and turned pirate shortly thereafter; Major Stede Bonnet, a wealthy plantation owner in Barbados before he outfitted a ship and became a pirate in 1717: some say he did it to get away from a nagging wife; and of course, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.

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