This Day In History: Henry John Burnett became the last man to be hanged in Scotland on this day in 1963. The last hanging in the USA was in 1996, and the last public hanging was in 1936 in Kentucky and it was attended by a crowd of 20,000 onlookers. That execution was carried out by a female Sheriff, Florence Thompson. Only the state of New Hampshire still retains hanging as an option. The last hangings in Canada took place on 11 December 1962.
Some countries still use hangings as a form of capital punishment, such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore.
There was also something called inverted hanging. This was where you hung the convicted person from their legs, rather than from their neck, either as a form of torture, or as an execution method. This was used in Elizabethan maritime law. During Queen Elizabeth I's reign, the following was written concerning those who stole a ship from the Royal Navy:
"If anye one practysed to steale awaye anye of her Majesty's shippes, the captaine was to cause him to be hanged by the heels untill his braines were beaten out against the shippe's sides, and then to be cutt down and lett fall intoe the sea."
People were also hanged by the ribs. In 1713, Juraj Jánošík, a semi-legendary Slovak outlaw and folk hero, was sentenced to be hanged from his left rib. He was left to slowly die.
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