History — Page 6
Surprising historical events
221 facts
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed in a single fire.
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed in a single event. It was gradually lost over several centuries, due to…
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was one of the greatest centres of knowledge in the world.
The House of Wisdom, founded in Baghdad in the 8th century, brought together translation, astronomy, mathematics…
Egyptian scribes could be punished for writing errors.
Scribes in ancient Egypt were highly valued but also severely punished. Didactic texts from the period mention…
The Black Death killed about 10 percent of the European population.
The Black Death, which struck Europe between 1347 and 1351, killed between 30 and 60 percent of the European…
The Great Fire of London started in a bakery.
The Great Fire of London in 1666 started in a bakery on Pudding Lane, owned by Thomas Farriner. The fire destroyed…
The United States Declaration of Independence was written on a piece of hemp paper.
The draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was written on a piece of…
The Silk Road was exclusively overland and never had maritime routes.
The Silk Road was not only overland. There was also a maritime Silk Road connecting ports in China, Southeast Asia…
A royal tomb discovered in Belize may belong to the Maya king who founded the city of Caracol.
Archaeologists found a richly decorated tomb in Belize that may belong to one of the first kings of Caracol, a…
The inventor of the Pringles can requested to be buried in one, and his family honored the wish.
Fred Baur, the chemist who helped develop the iconic can and manufacturing process of Pringles chips, requested that…
In 1932, the Australian military declared war on emus, deploying machine guns in a conflict known as the Great Emu War, which the emus effectively won.
The birds proved surprisingly resilient to bullets and scattered quickly, making military operations ineffective and…
During the French Revolution, the guillotine was also used to execute dogs considered dangerous or rabid.
The use of the guillotine was not limited to humans, being equally applied to animals convicted of attacking people…
The Three Hundred and Thirty-Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly lasted from 1651 to 1986 without a single shot being fired.
The conflict was declared during the English Civil War but never formally ended, until a historian noticed the…
The city of Troy, which was thought to be merely a Homeric legend, was discovered in the nineteenth century by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
Schliemann followed the geographical descriptions of the Iliad and excavated at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey…
Napoleon Bonaparte was once forced to flee a hunting party when thousands of domestic rabbits swarmed and attacked him.
To celebrate a treaty, his chief of staff organized a hunt, but bought tamed rabbits that, instead of fleeing…
Louis nineteen of France was king for only twenty minutes, the shortest reign in history, before abdicating in favor of his nephew.
In eighteen thirty, after his father Charles ten abdicated, Louis technically became king before signing his own…
The first person to be killed by an industrial robot was the American Robert Williams, in nineteen seventy-nine.
Williams was retrieving parts at a Ford casting plant when a three-thousand-pound robotic arm struck him in the head…
Ancient Romans used human urine as mouthwash and crushed mouse brains as toothpaste to whiten their teeth.
The ammonia in urine acted as an effective cleaning agent, while medical recipes of the time included bizarre…
Napoleon Bonaparte was actually of average height for his time, not short.
The myth of his short stature arose from a confusion between French and English measurements of the time, in addition…
Lady Jane Grey ruled England for only nine days in 1553.
Known as the Nine Days' Queen, she was placed on the throne by Protestant conspirators but was quickly deposed by…
Ancient Egyptians used a toothpaste made from crushed rock salt, mint, and dried iris flowers.
This primitive mixture served to clean teeth and freshen breath, demonstrating that oral hygiene was a concern even…
In the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, winners received silver medals.
In that edition held in Athens, gold was not yet the standard for first place, with a silver medal awarded to the…
Ancient Romans used crushed mouse brains as a form of toothpaste.
It was believed that this strange mixture helped relieve toothache and whiten teeth, reflecting the sometimes bizarre…
The first oranges cultivated in history were actually green, not orange.
The orange color of the fruit is due to a pigment that only develops in cooler climates. In the tropics, where…
The ancient Olympic Games were held in honor of Zeus.
These games, held in the city of Olympia in ancient Greece, were a religious and athletic festival dedicated to the…