May 5, 1821 –
Napoleon died on the island of St. Helena on this date. After confession, Extreme Unction and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali, Napoleon’s last words were, “France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine” (“France, army, head of the army, Joséphine“). Some suspect Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning.
More likely, he died from stomach cancer as did his father. But then who knows, I wasn’t there, were you?
Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony was originally called Bonaparte as tribute to Napoleon, the First Consul. When Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor in 1804, the disillusioned Beethoven tore up the pages of his score in a rage, stamped on it and changed it to Eroica (meaning heroic). When informed of the death of Napoleon on May 5, 1821, Beethoven said, “I wrote the music for this sad event seventeen years ago“, referring to the funereal second movement.
But wait there’s more – much like Einstein’s long traveling brain – they stole Napoleon’s penis.
Urban legend has it, post-death, Napoléon Bonaparte’s penis was removed from body during his autopsy, smuggled to Cosica by his confessor Father Ange Vignali, displayed in a Philadelphia museum (during the early part of the 20th century), and ended up under the bed of John Kingsley Lattimer, a prominent urologist, ballistics expert and collector of historical relics who treated top-ranking Nazis during the Nuremberg war crimes trials and was the first nongovernmental medical specialist allowed to examine the evidence in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. (You just can’t make this stuff up.)
Demand Euphoria!
The Haus of Dcaligari 