The first autobiography in English was dictated by a woman who could not write.
The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1438) tells of the pilgrimages of a mother of 14; its manuscript was found in a private library only in 1934.
More amazing facts
- 1431 · 1920 Joan of Arc was burned as a heretic in 1431, and in 1920 the Catholic Church made her a saint, 489 years later.
- 1431 · 1897 The name Dracula meant "son of the Dragon". Vlad III's father joined the Order of the Dragon in 1431 and was called Dracul, and in 1897 Bram Stoker gave the name to his vampire.
- 1438 · 1533 The Inca Empire, the largest in pre-Columbian America, lasted less than a century.
- 1438 · 1532 · 1552 The Inca Empire and the Khanate of Kazan arose at almost the same moment, around 1438.
- 1438 The Incas freeze-dried potatoes.
- 1441 · 1639 Korea's rain gauges are 198 years older than Europe's. King Sejong set up a network of identical gauges in 1441, while Europe's first was made by Benedetto Castelli only in 1639.