December 25th. A date that is familiar to all of us as Christmas Day, the day that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary in the town of Bethleham. But was he?

Most of us are now familiar with the controversy about the millennium partly because our chronology was based on the wrong year of Christ's birth. Modern scholars now narrow down Christ's birth to occurring in one of the years from 7 BC to 4 BC, making the Birth Millennium sometime in the late 1990's. But not known to many people is the fact that Christ was not born on the 25th of December at all!

When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity under the leadership of Constantine the Great during the 4th century, the newly converted Roman Church began its campaign of converting the pagans and heathens to their Religion. Knowing the difficulty the Empire had when persecuting the Christians when Christ was alive, the church decided to start making many Pagan celebrations into Christian Holy Days (Holidays - Word Origin!).

What better way to do that than to make the official church recognized birthday of Jesus Christ on the same day as the heathen new year -- December 25th. Even though Christ's actual birthday is lost to the sands of time, many scholars now believe he was born during the springtime, perhaps in the month of March.

Word Origin - - hussy. Originally an Anglo-Saxon word "hus-wyf," meaning a household-bound woman -- a housewife. Only during the Renaissance period did it take on the meaning now associated with it.

"Ring around the rosy,

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall down."

Most of us remember this old nursery rhyme, but many don't know just how old it is, or the darkness of its origins. This simple child's rhyme came about during the darkest years of the Black Plague in Europe. The first line recalls one of the earliest symptoms of the plague - a sore with a ring of red flesh around it. The second line comes from one of the many beliefs of how to ward off the plague - by keeping posies in your pocket, and sniffing the fragrance, or eating the flowers, when coming in contact with someone who might be carrying the plague. The third line originally was "Achoo! Achoo!" signifying another symptom of the disease - sneezing. The last line is self-evident - death taking over a 1/3 of the total population of Europe.

April 15th, 1912 -- a date that should be familiar to almost all of us.

Most of us remember this date as the day the ocean liner HMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank (killing Leonardo DiCaprio in the process). But more importantly, it signified the end of the Gilded Age - a time when man's confidence in himself and his technology ran at an all time high. When the great "unsinkable" ship went down, along with many prominent society people, humankind realized we weren't as invincible as we thought, and the future was irrevocably changed. See, dates are important!!

Controversy has surrounded the sinking since the day after the news broke. Only recently did we learn that the ship broke into two pieces before sinking, confirming testimony from some eye witnesses in the trial that followed. Reports also have people hearing several explosions before the ship went down, many people believing it to be the sound of Titanic's boilers exploding. But the same expedition that proved the Titanic broke apart, also disproved this theory, leaving the only possible source of the explosions to be the sound of the ship snapping in two.

Just how did the stern go down? Some reports have the stern behaving exactly as it did in James Cameron's movie, but there are others that have the stern remaining level, and not rising perpendicular again, before sinking, causing many of the people on the stern to believe that it was going to remain afloat, and that they were saved. One thing that can be agreed on -- there was no suction as the stern disappeared below the surface, as the testimony of one of Titanic's cooks stated (presumably he was the man next to Rose {Kate Winslet} on the stern as the ship went down in the movie). The cook said he just rode the stern down like it was an elevator, and stepped off after it went under, his head never going below the surface of the water.

Unlike we saw the 1999 CBS television mini-series of the life of Joan of Arc, Joan never revealed just what she said (or showed) to Charles to convince him of her cause, and he never revealed what the secret was, either. There are many speculations, depending on whether she really did speak with saints or not. Perhaps we can also speculate on something else -- Joan was a young woman at the time, and rather pretty for the age. Maybe she played more of a hand in getting weak-willed Charles to support her than the saints did after they were left alone in a corner of the castle!

Also, for nitpicking sake, Joan's head was actually shaved before they burned her at the stake (a practice that was done to all of the stake's victims).

Bowling is the oldest known surviving sport, having originated with the ancient Egyptians in the BC era, and producing many variations through the years, including the game of billiards, which has its origins in Renaissance England. Many notable historical figures played billiards, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln. It is believed, though, that Cleopatra was not one of them, despite what Shakespeare said.

The majority of Conrad III's army during the Second Crusade was made up of ministeriales, or unfree knights, who were basically nothing more than upper class serfs.

During the early middle ages, the preferred weapons of choice were the spear, short sword, and shield. Many of Hollywood's combat scenes are spectacular, but rather unrealistic. Soldiers tried to avoid clashing swords with each other at any cost, especially with the blade's edge, which would become nicked and useless in short order. The shield was the device of choice in parrying a sword blow. One of the most realistic battle scenes comes from the above-mentioned Joan of Arc movie, in which we finally see a good representation of the melee -- the battle tactic which generally followed a long, unsuccessful siege. And the reason why heraldry became so important during the middle ages, in identifying who was friend and foe on the battlefield.

The shooting arms of English Longbow Archers often weighed 10 ounces or more than the arm that aimed the bow, simply from the repetition and strength needed to pull back the string.

Word Origin -- Breakfast, literally from the phrase to "break one's fast," the fast being the time between supper and the morning meal in medieval times.

Nostradamus had come back into popularity as the year 2000 approached and the dawn of the millennium was only a year more away. One of the prophecies was that World War III would begin with the Third Anti-Christ in the Middle East in the seventh month of 1999.

But many people don't know that before Nostradamus became a prophet, he was a well-respected physician during the Black Plague. Although he advocated radical treatments to ward off the plague, such as daily bathing, his wife and children became victims of the disease.

The summer. A time for relaxing at the beach or by the pool. But what about that bright sunshine? Sunglasses have been around a lot longer than most people think.

The original creators of sunglasses were blacksmiths and glassblowers. After working long hours in front of a burning forge, many blacksmiths and glassblowers found their eyesight becoming damaged from the glow of the forge. As a result, they took two pieces of flat glass, wrapped them in an iron frame, then stuck them in the smoke from the forge for a few moments, causing the pieces of glass to become hazed and smokey. By wearing the glasses, they reduced the strain on their eyes -- and thus sunglasses were born.

On another summer note, many of us like to work on our tan while lounging around in our sunglasses. Back during the medieval age though, it was considered poor taste for anyone of wealth to have a tan. Pale skin was in at the Royal Courts of every country, since only peasants who worked the fields were the ones getting tan. In fact, the more pale the better, giving rise to covering one's face in white powder.

Atomic and Astronomical clocks are thought of to be an invention of modern science to have a precise way of telling time. But one of the first Astronomical Clocks was invented by Su Sung in the Hunan Province of China in 1090 AD.

Su Sung's clock was a tower enclosing a water wheel that drove the clockwork rotating a model of a celestial globe on the top. Puppet figures appeared and sounded the hours and quarter hours. The clock was built to forecast the movements of the sun, moon, and the planets. Time-telling by hours and minutes was secondary to the celestial aspect.

Giovanni da Dondi can be considered as the inventer of one of the first mechanical clocks. Giovanni built his mechanical clock in 1348, and it was known as a wonder of the world during its time. The clock included hours, minutes, planets in their orbits, the rotation of heavenly bodies, calendrical feast days, and dragon embellishments. The clock reproduced in an artificial device, the regular, inexorable timing of the human pulse, and was medically required for use during the Black Plague.

Phrase Origin -- Hair of the Dog. Back in medieval times, part of the treatment for a bite by a rabid dog was by incorporating a piece of the dog's hair in the ointment or healing salve used in the compress to treat the wound. This gave rise to the phrase "hair of a mad dog," now more commonly used for having a drink to rid oneself of a hangover.

Unlike the portrayal in many Hollywood movies, castles were not the cold, dark, dank places many people think they were. Part of this belief is the fact that only the bare stonework survives in many of the world's castles, but any man of wealth would not be caught dead in anything less than a lavish and elegant home.

Huge fireplaces were used to keep each room of the castle at a comfortable temperature during the cold months. Large windows and mirrors did more than provide enough lighting for the dwelling, it made hallways and rooms appear much bigger than they actually were. As for bare walls -- that was reserved for the dungeons. Most of the walls and floors of a castle were covered by beautiful tapestries, decorated plaster, and hardwood. The ceilings would be covered by murals dedicated to God and Christ.

We must remember, these were the homes of the equivalent to today's millionaires and billionaires -- and these people let everyone know just how well they lived.

One of the biggest mysteries of history is exactly what happened to the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, off of the coast of what was known as Virginia in 1587 (now North Carolina). The only clue left behind was the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree trunk. The word was actually the name of another island offshore, and the indian tribe that inhabited it.

As it turns out, from the study of bald cyprus tree rings, at that time the area was suffering from the driest year in 800 years. When the English established the colony of Jamestown 20 years later, only 38 out of 104 colonists survived that first year. They too arrived during a drought that lasted form 1606 to 1612, another 800 year record.