Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

New Haven and Connecticut were separate colonies until two regicides were known to have taken refuge in New Haven. (A third had managed to conceal that he was there, having prudently changed his name immediately on arrival, but the other two had gone first to Boston under their real names.) Charles II merged New Haven with Connecticut as punishment.

When pony-breeding was introduced to India, in marginal and hilly regions where the inhabitants already herded sheep, goats, and cows, it produced not only massive horse fairs, but also changes in pilgrimage routes as people took in a pilgrimage on the way to or from the fair.

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As Pickett's forces were preparing for Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, some of them startled a hare that ran off. One gaunt Virginian called after, "Run old heah; if I were an old heah I would run too."

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Properly marrying off all the royal children was considered, in Korea, to be part of the rites to stablize the relationship with Heaven.

Prussian forest rangers, installed by Napoleon in the Rhineland, introduced forestry management techniques such as cutting down broadleaf trees -- oaks, maples, beechs -- as unproductive and banning the traditional use of the forest. They were among the first to go during the 1848 revolutions.
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King Cleomenes I of Sparta, wanting to massacre Argives who had taken refuge in a sacred grove, tricked some out but finally resorted to ordering slaves to burn it down -- thus, the blame for the desecration was the slaves', not his. He also had the slaves flog a priest of Hera at Argos, because the priest had tried to prevent his offering sacrifice.

The Dutch, being forbidden by their sumptuary laws to dress in other than black, not only dyed more expensive cloth black, but took to making black lace.

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The first firearms were breech-loaders. You pulled out the chamber to load it and then forced it back in. The necessary limits to keeping it in brought about muzzle-loaders.

Koreans who went to China began to hire horse-drawn carriages so frequently that by the end of the nineteenth century it was regarded as uncouth to ride a horse instead.
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In some Arab cultures, the presumption that an oldest son will name his firstborn for his father is such that he is called "Abu-father's name" -- "father of so-and-so" before he has children or even is married.

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Besides the natural tendency of Vestal Virgins who survived their term in office to like their wealth and position too much to marry, there was a reputation that men who married them died soon.

The original practice for lights -- on the railways -- was Red for stop, Green for Caution, and White for Go. However, the increasing amount of artificial light made this impractical, because any random white light might be taken for a railway one.

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John Wilkinson's work in steam engines began because James Watt could use his new boring technique, invented for cannons, on pistons, but it continued with Wilkinson finding many uses for steam engine in ironworking, instead of merely using them to pump water out of coal engines as they had in the past.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Portuguese court simply packed up and moved to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the Portuguese Empire until 1820. Around 15,000 people moved there as part of the court and government.

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Galileo's discovery that Jupiter had moons produced deep debate on whether they should be included in horoscopes, but the conclusion was that since they were so close to Jupiter, the effect would work as a lump.

Julius Caesar banned the wearing of pearls by commoners.

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One of the last bestiaries reported there were populations of unicorns in Florida and Quebec.

Before Julius Caesar and the Julian calendar, the Roman (lunar) calendar was supposed to kept in sync with the year by inserting intercalary months as needed. Not only did this rouse considerations of prolonging terms in office, it was supposed to be unlucky when major wars were going on.

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