I love peanut butter sandwiches and all kinds of peanuts. Did you know that every time you eat a spoonful of peanut butter there is one man to thank? I bet you can guess that this man has a great mustache because this is Great Mustaches in His...

Pick a card, any card. Did you know that some people think the kings in a deck of cards represent real kings from history? A lot of people might disagree but there are a whole lot of people who think the King of Hearts is a special card because it represents Charlemagne.

Charlemagne, also known as Charles I, was one of the greatest kings of the Middle Ages. Charlemagne at first was King of the Franks and later became the Holy Roman Emperor.

All of this was a long time ago because Charlemagne lived from 742 until 814. Sometimes you will hear Charlemagne called Charles the Great because that is what his name means.

Charlemagne Becomes King

Charlemagne's father was Pepin the Short, King of the Franks. Pepin was the first king in the Carolingian Empire. It was called the Carolingian Empire because the empire was descended from Charlemagne. That is what Carolingian means; descendant of Charles. This was one of the best times in history for the Franks. When Pepin died he left his sons in charge. They were named Charlemagne and Carloman.

It is really hard for two people to rule. Probably the brothers would have started a war to fight it out to see who would be in charge. But Carloman died. After Carloman died Charlemagne was left as the sole King.

Charlemagne's Kingdom

Charlemagne was the king of the Franks. The Franks were Germanic tribes. They lived in the area that today is mostly France. Part of the area was also what is today Germany.

Charlemagne did not just leave things like they were. He expanded the Frankish Empire. One of the main ways he expanded was by conquering the Saxon territories. Taking over the Saxon territories moved his kingdom more and more into what we now call Germany.

Because Charlemagne was one of the first to consolidate the land that is now Germany some people call him the father of the Germany Monarchy. At this same time the Pope was having trouble with the Lombards in the north part of Italy so the Pope asked Charlemagne to help conquer Lombards. Charlemagne was so good at fighting that he beat the Lombards and took control of the land including the city of Rome.

Charlemagne also conquered Bavaria. He did not stop there. Charlemagne also fought the Moors in Spain. He did so well that part of Spain was in his Empire.

Holy Roman Emperor

Charlemagne was in Rome in the year 800. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the Emperor of the Romans over the Holy Roman Empire. The Pope gave him the title Carolus Augustus.

A famous man named Voltaire once said, "The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."

The statement meant that the Holy Roman Empire did not amount to much. The title the Pope gave him did not give him any real power. Even though there was not any real power it did give Charlemagne a lot of respect in Europe.

Charlemagne as a Leader

Charlemagne turned out to be not just good at conquering territories, he was a pretty good leader too. Here is what he did, whenever Charlemagne took over an area he would have his Frankish nobles to rule the conquered area. But Charlemagne did something really smart. His guys would rule but he would also allow the conquered people to keep their own customs and keep their own laws. Charlemagne had all the local laws written down and then he made sure they were enforced.

But, Charlemagne did more than that. He also made things better. He made economic reforms and even started a new money standard. He made sure that people used sound accounting principles. Charlemagne made sure there were fair laws on money lending and he made sure prices were fair.

Charlemagne did not just improve the money system, he also encouraged people to become educated. He even helped some students and paid for their education. He also started a lot of schools in monasteries all over Europe.

Charlemagne made a big impact on European culture by doing things such as encouraging culture, commissioning church music,

We have friends listening to this podcast all over the world. It is cool that I’m in Texas, we have listeners in England, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, and in Italy. In fact, we know of people in 77 countries but there may be more.

The world really is connected these days. But it was not always this way. In fact, there was a time when no one had ever sailed all the way around the world.

It took someone with a great mustache to lead the first trip to go all the way around the world. This man with a great mustache also discovered a way to go from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

Today we call that passage the Straits of Magellan. That’s because the explorer that we are talking about is Ferdinand Magellan.

Early Life

Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480 in Portugal. His family was rich and when he was young he was a page in the royal court. Now this won’t surprise anyone, Magellan loved sailing.

Remember way back in Episode 7 of Great Mustaches in History we talked about Marco Polo? If you know about trade back then you know that there was so much money made from bringing goods from the East that people were trying to find the best, fastest, and cheapest way to get to the East.

Magellan went to India by sailing around Africa, but the whole time he had the sneaking suspicion that he could get to the East by going west around the Americas.

Magellan wanted the King of Portugal to finance his trip but the King did not think that it would work and Magellan and the King got in a big fight.

Finally, Magellan asked King Charles V of Spain to pay for the trip and he agreed.

Sailing Around the World

In September of 1519 Magellan set sail to find the way to Eastern Asia by sailing west. He had over 270 men and five ships. His five ships were called the Trinidad, the Santiago, the Victoria, the Concepcion, and the San Antonio.

First they sailed from Europe across the Atlantic and to the Canary Islands. From the Canary Islands they sailed south to Brazil.

Mutiny

Not everyone knew this back then but if you go far enough south you get close to the South Pole and it gets really cold and the weather can be very bad for sailing. Another thing they were not ready for was how long the trip was. They did not have enough food on the ships.

Some of the sailors did not want to do what Magellan wanted them to. When sailors on a ship refuse to follow orders or try to take over a ship it is called a mutiny. That is just what some of the sailors did and they tried to steal three of the ships.

Magellan was not going to put up with that. Soon Magellan was back in control. He had the leaders of the mutiny executed and that was the end of that.

Straits of Magellan

As the ships continued to sail south they were looking for a passage and they found one. Magellan called this passage the All Saints' Channel. But today it is called the Straits of Magellan.

When they went through the Straits of Magellan the ships entered a brand new ocean. Magellan called this new ocean the Pacifico, meaning peaceful. We call it the Pacific Ocean today.

Once they were in the Pacific Ocean they could sail on to China. The ship called the Santiago had sunk and the ship called the San Antonio had disappeared so there were only three ships in Magellan’s fleet.

Magellan was excited to be in the Pacific Ocean because he figured they would cross the Pacific Ocean in just a few days. Boy was he was wrong. The trip took nearly four months. Magellan’s fleet finally made it to the Mariana Islands. It took so much longer than they thought that the entire group almost starved to death.

Death of Magellan

The ships were resupplied and they went to the Philippines. Here is where the story gets weird and sad. Magellan got in the middle of a war between some local tribes.

Magellan and around 40 of his men were killed. Here’s the sad part, Magellan was a great explorer but he did not live to the end of his trip.

Did you know that every time you read a book there is one person to thank.  If it were not for this man with a great mustache you would never be able to read a book because there would not be any books printed. Johannes Gutenberg invented the ...

People have been fighting wars since the beginning of time. But, there is one person who wrote the most famous book about the art of war. Military leaders, business leaders, and many other people have studied the book called The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Now, not only is this ancient book one of the most important books on warfare but of course you know that this is a podcast called Great Mustaches in History; so you will not be surprised that Sun Tzu has a great mustache.

Early Life

I usually start by telling you all about the early life of the subject of the podcast we do not know much about Sun Tzu's early life. We do know that he was born Sun Wu and was the son of an aristocrat in Ancient China. He was interested in warfare and was a mercenary soldier. Sun Tzu became known as a great leader of soldiers.

The King's Test

People noticed that Sun Tzu was a great leader. The King of Wu heard about Sun Tzu so he brought him to to the royal palace so he could test him.  The king told Sun Tzu he had to train 180 of his concubines as soldiers.

Sun Tzu put the concubines in two groups and made a woman the leader of each group. He gave them a command but the women did not obey. They just giggled at him. Sun Tzu showed them that he meant business when he had the two leaders executed. Everyone was shocked. Sun Tzu then assigned two more leaders. This time when he gave the command everyone did exactly what he said.

Military Leader

Sun Tzu learned a lot about war and even began to have his own ideas about strategy. King Wu had made Sun Tzu a general. Sun Tzu tested his ideas and found that they worked. The King of Wu fought the King of Chu (both Wu and Chu were regions in ancient China). Now, the state of Chu was much more powerful than the area Wu where Sun Tzu was. But, even though they were fighting a powerful enemy, Sun Tzu's ideas worked and they won lots of battles. Sun Tzu even led the army to capture the capital city of Ying.

The Art of War

Sun Tzu thought so much about how to win wars that he wrote a book called the Art of War. It is one of the most famous books about war ever written. Each chapter in the book talks about different parts of war.

Here are the thirteen chapters:

Laying Plans

Waging War

The Plan of Attack

Positioning

Directing

Weak Points and Strong

Maneuvering

The Nine Variations

The Army on the March

Terrain

The Nine Terrains

Attack by Fire

The Use of Spies

Sun Tzu  thought it was better not to have a war at all but if you had to have a war the best thing to do is to win as quickly as possible. He knew that war hurt everyone even the nations that won the war so he thought it best to avoid war but if you had to fight it should be as quick as possible.

Famous Sayings from the Art of War

Sun Tzu has many famous sayings. Here are a few:

To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.

A leader leads by example, not by force.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

Attack the enemy where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

All warfare is based on deception.

A clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

What is of the greatest importance in war is extraordinary speed; one cannot afford to neglect opportunity.

Influence of Sun Tzu

As I said, the Art of War is one of the most famous books about war. It has been studied by military leaders in virtually every nation in the world and has been studied every since it was written.

People still study Sun Tzu's book the Art of War. It is used in military schools. The CIA makes every agent read it. It is used by people in the U.S. Military Intelligence.

But the Art of War is not just a military book. It is read and the ideas used by people in many areas. The strategy in the book is used by people in business, management, sports, and politics.

Have you ever had a milk mustache? Well, those are not the greatest mustaches in history. But, did you know that a scientist with a GREAT mustache found a way to make milk safe to drink? This episode of Great Mustaches in History is about Louis Pasteur.

Early Life

Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France on December 27, 1822. Louis Pasteur loved to sing and enjoyed art but he was just an average student. His family did not have much money but he started learning a lot about science when he was a teenager. When he found science he knew that he would do that all his life.

College and Family

Louis Pasteur decided to be a science teacher. So he went to college in 1838. He did really well in college. He learned all he could and earned degrees in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He was so good at science that he became a chemistry professor at the University of Strasbourg.

At his new job he met and fell in love with Marie Laurent. They got married in 1849. Louis and Marie had five children. But something terrible happened. Three of his children were very young when they died from typhoid fever. The deaths of his children changed Louis forever. Not only was he sad, but he decided that he was going to learn all about infectious diseases so other children would not have to die from typhoid fever.

Scientific Discoveries

Louis Pasteur dedicated his life to science and discovered a lot of things that make our life better. Here are just a few of his discoveries.

Bacteria and Germ Theory

Back in Louis Pasteur's day everyone thought that microbes like germs and bacteria just appeared. They thought is was almost like magic that nobody could do anything about. When something like that happens it is called "spontaneous generation."

Of course that is not the way germs and bacteria work but people did not know that. The way you tell if things are true in science is through experiments. So Louis Pasteur did experiments to see how germs and bacteria worked.

He proved that germs and bacteria are living things. They do not just appear. Louis Pasteur made a very important discovery that changed the way biology was studied and the way medicine was practiced. Louis Pasteur was called the "Father of Germ Theory."

Pasteurization

Pasteur kept learning about germs and microbes and he figured out that they were involved in making things like wine and milk spoil. It was caused by microbes such as bacteria and molds. But here is where Louis Pasteur showed how smart he was. He figured out that if he heated the milk it killed most of the microbes. After the microbes were dead milk lasted a lot longer. This makes milk safer to drink. Heating liquids to kill the microbes is called pasteurization in honor of Pasteur. This is still done to a lot of foods like milk, vinegar, wines, cheese, and juices.

Silk Worms

Pasteur did not stop learning about microbes. Once the French silk market had a terrible problem because all the silkworms had a disease. They were afraid that it could be the end of the French silk trade.

When things looked really bad, Pasteur thought he should think about the problem scientifically. Sure enough, the disease in the silk worms was caused by microbes. He figured out that if they got rid of all the microbes in the silkworm farms it would eliminate the disease. It worked and Louis Pasteur saved the French silk business.

Vaccinations

Louis Pasteur never forgot how sad it was when is children died so he kept working on preventing diseases. What he figured out that no one else had ever thought of was that if he helped people's immune system they would not get sick in the first place.

He figured out that if he made a weak form of a disease people could fight that off and then people would become immune to the stronger real disease. Louis Pasteur called this weak form a "vaccine."

Louis Pasteur found out about vaccines by working with cattle on the disease anthrax.

You may have known a little about some of the people we have covered before in this podcast. However, I bet you don't know much about the man in this episode. He has a great mustache that turns up at the ends. He did more than just about anyon...

You'll never believe this but a long time ago telephones used to be attached to a wire plugged into the wall and you actually had to answer the phone before you knew who was calling you. Okay, that was just a joke. But it won't be long until kids don't know about life before cell phones.

But the whole idea of calling someone on the phone is due to a man with a great mustaches. Alexander Graham Bell is the subject of this episode of Great Mustaches in History.

Bell's Place in History

Alexander Graham Bell is most famous for his invention of the telephone. You may not know this but his mother and wife were deaf. That is why he was so interested in sound. He experimented with sound a lot. He had one idea that really became an obsession. Telegraphs were the main way that people communicated over long distances in his day. Bell wanted to send more than dots and dashes. He wanted to send voices down the telegraph wire.

Bell convinced people to help fund his research. After he got funding he began working on inventing the telephone. On March 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words over the phone, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

Several other people were working on the telephone. Bell invented the phone but had to race to the patent office because others were about to patent devices very similar to his telephone. Bell was first but not by much. But being first was all that mattered. His valuable patent changed the world. Alexander Graham Bell and his investors formed Bell Telephone Company in 1877. Of course there have been a lot of changes over the years. Bell telephone was split up but his company is known today as AT&T.

Early Life

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He grew up in Scotland. His father was a professor and supervised his early education. Alexander Graham Bell later attended the University of Edinburgh.

Other Inventions

Alexander Graham Bell did not just work on the telephone. He was interested in a lot of things and worked on lots of projects. He had many other inventions and did experimentation in many areas of science.

Here are a few of his other inventions.

The Metal Detector - Alexander Graham Bell invented the metal detector. That metal detector was used to try and find a bullet inside of President James Garfield.

Alexander Graham Bell invent the audiometer which is a device used to detect hearing problems.

Alexander Graham Bell worked on aeronautics and hydrofoils.

He worked on new techniques to teach speech to deaf people.

He made a device to help find icebergs.

Interesting Facts About Bell

Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call across the whole country on January 15, 1915. This famous telephone call was also made to Thomas Watson. Bell was in New York City while Watson was in San Francisco.

Alexander Graham Bell helped form the National Geographic Society.

This is weird but, Alexander Graham Bell did not like to have a telephone in his study. He thought it intruded.

Everyone knows his name is Alexander Graham Bell but he did not get the middle name Graham until he was 10 years old. His brothers had middle names but he did not, so his father gave him the name Graham.

When Alexander Graham Bell died, every telephone in North America was silenced for a short time to honor him.

If you are thinking of rich people the name Warren Buffet may come to mind. You might think of Bill Gates. But one name comes to everyone's mind when people think of the super rich. His name has been synonymous with wealth for generations.

Not only is he the most famous of the world's super rich, he also sported a mustache. So, John D. Rockefeller is perfect for this episode of Great Mustaches in History.

Early Life

John Davison Rockefeller was born on a farm in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. William Rockefeller was his father. Most people called William Rockefeller "Big Bill" but some people called him "Devil Bill." William Rockefeller traveled a lot and was known to be involved in shady business deals. He was kind of a jerk because he treated people bad and did immoral things that really ended up hurting his family.

John was closer to his mother, Eliza, who took care of the family's six children. She was a devout Baptist. She was thrifty and taught her kids to work hard.

John learned from both parents. He learned to work hard and be thrifty from his mom but his father often bragged that he even cheated his sons in deals to keep them sharp. John learned how to make shrewd deals.

As John Grew Up

John grew to be a responsible and serious young man. Because he was the oldest son he was kind of the man of the family because his father would go traveling or spend time away from the family doing bad stuff. John had to learn quickly about discipline and hard work.

In 1853, the Rockefellers moved to Cleveland, Ohio. That is where John went to high school. He was good at math, music, and was a good debater. John dreamed of going to college but his father made him get a job to help support the family. John was able to take a short business course in bookkeeping at a local commercial college.

Early Career

When John was just sixteen, he got his first full-time job as a bookkeeper. He liked it and learned all he could about business.

He was a born business man so he soon decided that he knew enough to start his own produce business in 1859 with his friend Maurice Clark. John knew how to watch the bottom line, knew how to make shrewd deals, and enjoyed working hard. The business was a successful in the very first year.

Oil Business

Of course, nobody thinks of fruits and vegetables when they think of Rockefeller. We all think of oil. John D. Rockefeller started a new business in 1863. He started his oil business.

Now this was not like starting a gas station or selling motor oil. This was before electricity and oil was used mainly in lamps. Whale oil was the most popular oil to use but whales were over-hunted and whale oil was getting more and more expensive.

Rockefeller had a knack for reading trends and saw that whale oil would not be around much longer so he focused on kerosene. Rockefeller and his partner from the produce business Maurice Clark started their own oil refinery business to make kerosene for lamp oil. In 1865, Rockefeller bought out Clark for $72,500.

Rockefeller was good at this business too. He kept costs down and reinvested every penny he could back into his business. His thrift, hard work, and shrewd business dealings soon helped him have the largest refinery business in Cleveland and one of the biggest in the United States.

Standard Oil

Rockefeller set his sights high. He formed  Standard Oil in 1870. His goal was not just to have a bigger refinery. He wanted to take over the entire oil refinery business. He began to buy out his competitors. He would buy a refinery but then he would put his business skill to work to make improvements. Most of the time the refinery became more efficient and profitable.

He was not always nice about it when he bought a competitor. He would often tell his competitors that he would have their business either way. They could sell to him for what he thought was a fair price or he would run them out of business.

Think of the best movies from your childhood. Now think of the happiest place on earth. Add in an interesting man who created a character that is the most recognized cartoon in the world, not to mention this man has a great mustache. Now you h...