14 Surprising Historical Last Events

Helen Viola Jackson married Civil War veteran James Bolin in 1936. Jackson was 17 when they wed, while James was 93 years old.

Their marriage, according to Jackson, was based on convenience and "respect," noting her husband "really cared for me [and] wanted me to have a future." The two were living in Missouri at the time, with Jackson struggling to survive during the Great Depression. Bolin, who'd fought for the Union during the Civil War, wanted to help and promised to leave Jackson his pension when he passed.

Because Jackson was concerned she looked like an opportunist, she never applied to receive Bolin's pension after his passing in 1939. She never remarried either, and only spoke about her relationship with Bolin in 2017.

At the age of 101, Jackson - the last widow of a Civil War veteran - passed in December 2020.

Often associated with the French Revolution, the guillotine has origins in the Middle Ages. It was a method of execution that was purported to be more humane than other techniques, and found use well into the 20th century.

The last time the blade of a guillotine came down on a convicted criminal's neck, it was that of Hamida Djandoubi. The Tunisian immigrant lived in Marseilles, France, and was sentenced to execution after having slain his girlfriend. He was executed on September 10, 1977.

On January 27, 2006, Western Union in the United States sent its final telegrams - a collection of messages that went out via their network of lines that began in 1851. It's difficult to pin down exactly when the very last message went out, but this wasn't the end of telegrams worldwide. That didn't happen until 2013.

In India, telegram messages came to an end on July 14, 2013 - officially nixing the communication technique. The government-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ended telegram service due to economic losses brought on by "SMS and smartphones... [rendering] this service redundant." 

Cornish and Manx are two Celtic languages that, according to the Endangered Language Alliance, have "completely fallen out of everyday use." The last native speaker of Cornish, Dolly Pentreath, perished in 1777, while Manx continued in remote areas of Britain through 1974.

The final native speaker of Manx was Edward "Ned" Maddrell, a resident of the Isle of Man. Born in 1877 or 1878, Maddrell learned Manx as a boy, worked as a fisherman for much of his life, and passed in late 1974. Recordings of Maddrell speaking Manx exist, as do books and dictionaries, and there have been efforts to bring the language back on the Isle of Man.

With a history that traces to the 11th century, the Tower of London wasn't initially intended to be a prison - but it became one of the most famous places used for punitive confinement in the world. Prisoners held at the Tower of London include then-princess Elizabeth Tudor in 1554, two of Henry VIII's wives - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard - and Guy Fawkes after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The Tower continued to be used as a prison on and off through history, with a pair of brothers serving as its last prisoners. The Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, were members of an organized crime outfit in London's East End, but it was failing to report for military duty that landed them in the Tower in 1952.

The Kray twins were in and out of prison for the rest of their lives, but the Tower of London became more of a repository of documents and royal artifacts, as well as a tourist attraction, thereafter. 

In 1967, tempers flared during a debate at the National Assembly in Paris, France, and Gaston Defferre resorted to calling his rival an "idiot" (or something comparable). In response to Defferre, politician Rene Ribière (then the mayor of Marseilles) demanded an apology. When Defferre refused, Ribière challenged him to a duel.

Defferre accepted, even after reportedly calling a duel "grotesque and ridiculous." He even threatened Ribière's manhood - indicating he'd make sure to render him "unfit" to be married the following day.

The two men met on April 21, each armed with an épée sword designed for fencing. The duel took place outside of Paris at Neuilly-sur-Seine, overseen by Jean de Lipkowski, the secretary of state for Foreign Affairs. Defferre and Ribière exchanged jabs, with Ribière declared the loser after being struck twice in four minutes.