Good morning, readers. I think you’ll enjoy these historical highlights that touch on education, geology, archaeology, statistics, language… and toilets.

This post in a series called “What’s in my ___?” uses the contents of a Saskatchewan child’s school bag to discuss the experience of attending a rural school in the 1940s.

Read about a female geologist who made a monumental discovery (also in the 1940s).

“Several years ago, a discovery during a restoration project on a palace and cathedral in Durham, England, helped clear up a longstanding riddle: what happened to the Scottish soldiers who were captured by Oliver Cromwell’s English parliamentary army after losing the bloody Battle of Dunbar….” Read the rest of the article here.

How’s this for a headline? “Statistics Canada Celebrates Best Census Since 1666”

I love this! “Sometimes I think that if I could live my life again, at age 18 I’d go straight into nursing school… But then I catch myself—I wouldn’t be the nurse I am if I hadn’t spent four formative years as an ambitious-but-undistinguished history student.”

Here’s a video to answer a question you may or may not have been wondering about:

Finally, have you heard of “contronyms”?

Enjoy the long weekend!