History
Discover facts about history. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
History
Mammoths survived after Egypt built the Great Pyramid.
Mammoths survived after Egypt built the Great Pyramid. A small population remained on Wrangel Island until about 4,000 years ago, centuries after the Great…
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Tutankhamun could literally keep Egypt's enemies under his thumb.
Tutankhamun could literally keep Egypt's enemies under his thumb. One walking stick from his tomb has a handle carved as two bound captives, one Nubian and…
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A medieval chronicler described a monk who flew—and blamed his missing tail.
A medieval chronicler described a monk who flew—and blamed his missing tail. William of Malmesbury wrote that Eilmer attached wings and launched himself from…
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The Vandals took Rome's treasures without needing to burn it down.
The Vandals took Rome's treasures without needing to burn it down. In 455, Gaiseric's forces plundered the city and carried off wealth and captives. Accounts…
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Legendary Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe kept a fully domesticated, remarkably thirsty pet elk that met a deeply tragic end after getting aggressively blackout drunk at a fancy aristocratic party.
Legendary Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe kept a fully domesticated, remarkably thirsty pet elk that met a deeply tragic end after getting aggressively blackout…
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Benjamin Franklin invented a rudimentary odometer in the eighteenth century simply because he wanted to figure out the most efficient routes for delivering the mail across the…
Benjamin Franklin invented a rudimentary odometer in the eighteenth century simply because he wanted to figure out the most efficient routes for delivering…
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West Pennard presented Victoria with a cheese made from hundreds of cows' milk.
West Pennard presented Victoria with a cheese made from hundreds of cows' milk. A period account records a cheese produced from the morning milk of 737 cows…
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Two man-eating lions disrupted a railway project at Tsavo in 1898.
Two man-eating lions disrupted a railway project at Tsavo in 1898. Repeated attacks spread fear among the construction crews and drove workers away. The…
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Access to the king's toilet could become access to power.
Access to the king's toilet could become access to power. The Groom of the Stool attended the monarch's most private routines, providing supplies and managing…
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Alexander named a city after his horse.
Alexander named a city after his horse. Ancient accounts say Alexander founded Bucephala after the death of Bucephalus, his famous mount, during the Indian…
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A Roman emperor's banquet legend became a beautiful nightmare.
A Roman emperor's banquet legend became a beautiful nightmare. The story of Elagabalus smothering guests beneath flowers comes from the notoriously unreliable…
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Founding Father Benjamin Franklin confidently decided the English language was deeply flawed in 1768 and invented his own phonetic alphabet, removing the letters C, J, Q, W, X, and Y entirely.
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin confidently decided the English language was deeply flawed in 1768 and invented his own phonetic alphabet, removing the…
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Trinidad has a lake that supplied material for ships and roads.
Trinidad has a lake that supplied material for ships and roads. Pitch Lake is a natural asphalt deposit at La Brea. Walter Raleigh wrote about using its pitch…
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Edison wanted houses poured into molds.
Edison wanted houses poured into molds. His concrete-house scheme tried to turn construction into a repeatable casting process, with a complex reusable mold…
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Julius Caesar made 46 BC last 445 days.
Julius Caesar made 46 BC last 445 days. Extra months brought the drifting Roman calendar back into line with the seasons before the new Julian system began. A…
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Eratosthenes measured Earth by comparing two cities' sunlight.
Eratosthenes measured Earth by comparing two cities' sunlight. Working in Egypt in the third century BCE, he used the difference between the Sun's angle at…
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Edgar Allan Poe became owner of the Broadway Journal in 1845, giving the famously combative critic a publication of his own.
Edgar Allan Poe became owner of the Broadway Journal in 1845, giving the famously combative critic a publication of his own. His attacks on other writers,…
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Victorian fashion put arsenic in the fabric.
Victorian fashion put arsenic in the fabric. Some brilliant green dyes contained arsenic. The danger began long before a customer wore the dress: workers…
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Wonder Woman's creator also studied lie detection.
Wonder Woman's creator also studied lie detection. Psychologist William Moulton Marston investigated whether blood-pressure changes could reveal deception,…
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Theodore Roosevelt's temporary office became the West Wing.
Theodore Roosevelt's temporary office became the West Wing. The 1902 White House renovation moved the president's working offices out of the family residence…
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Ea-Nasir was a copper merchant in ancient Mesopotamia whose business practices were so notoriously terrible that his angry customers carved their complaints into clay tablets that survived for nearly four thousand years.
Ea-Nasir was a copper merchant in ancient Mesopotamia whose business practices were so notoriously terrible that his angry customers carved their complaints…
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Princeton researchers Ernest Wever and Charles Bray successfully turned a living, unconscious cat into a fully functional telephone in 1930 to study how the auditory nerve processes sound.
Princeton researchers Ernest Wever and Charles Bray successfully turned a living, unconscious cat into a fully functional telephone in 1930 to study how the…
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The Kettenkrad steered like a motorcycle—until the tracks took over.
The Kettenkrad steered like a motorcycle—until the tracks took over. Handlebars turned its front wheel, while sharper turns also applied brakes to the tracks.…
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Russian researchers investigating the massive Tunguska Event of 1908 found an area in Siberia where eighty million trees were flattened in a radial pattern over eight hundred square miles, yet there was no impact crater.
Russian researchers investigating the massive Tunguska Event of 1908 found an area in Siberia where eighty million trees were flattened in a radial pattern…
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