History — Page 7
Surprising historical events
221 facts
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world.
Founded in the third century BC in Egypt, it was a center of knowledge that gathered the greatest intellectuals of…
The first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson to himself in nineteen seventy-one.
Tomlinson chose the at symbol to separate the user name from the machine name, sending the first message between two…
The first commercial flight took place in nineteen fourteen in Florida.
This historic flight, operated by the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, carried a single passenger across Tampa Bay…
The first successful heart transplant was performed in nineteen sixty-seven by Christiaan Barnard.
This historic surgery took place in Cape Town, South Africa, and the patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for eighteen…
The ancient city of Petra in Jordan was carved directly into vibrant red sandstone cliffs.
Known as the "Rose City", Petra was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom and is famous for its rock-cut temple and…
Pope Urban VII reigned for only 13 days in 1590.
Elected in September 1590, he died of malaria before he could be crowned.
The first computer virus, Creeper, was created in 1971.
This experimental program was designed to move through the ARPANET, without causing actual damage.
The first mobile phone call was made in 1973 by Martin Cooper.
A Motorola engineer, Cooper made the call to a rival at Bell Labs, using a heavy prototype.
The first commercial cell phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, cost nearly 4,000 dollars in 1983.
Nicknamed "the brick", this device offered only 30 minutes of talk time and took 10 hours to charge.
Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.
Teaching at Oxford began around the year ten ninety-six, while the Aztec Empire was officially founded with the…
The University of Al Quaraouiyine in Morocco is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world.
Founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, this university in Fez is recognized by UNESCO and Guinness World Records as…
Napoleon Bonaparte was not unusually short, being actually of average height for a Frenchman of his era.
The confusion arose due to the difference between French and English inches at the time, and his nickname 'the little…
William Henry Harrison served the shortest presidency in United States history, dying just thirty-one days after his inauguration.
He contracted pneumonia shortly after his lengthy inaugural address outdoors on a cold, damp day, becoming the first…
The Great Fire of London in 1666 helped stop the Great Plague of London.
The extreme flames destroyed most of the wooden houses and open sewers where rats and plague-carrying fleas thrived…
The first vending machine in the world was invented to dispense holy water.
In the first century, Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria created a device where people inserted a bronze coin. The…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The Great Pyramid was built around twenty-five hundred BC, while Cleopatra ruled in the first century BC, placing her…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the pyramids.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built around twenty-five hundred BC. Cleopatra ruled in the first century BC, and the…
The first computer programmer in history was a woman from the nineteenth century.
Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine, Charles Babbage s Analytical Engine, in…
The shortest war in history lasted only thirty eight minutes.
The Anglo Zanzibar War occurred in 1896. The conflict began at nine in the morning and ended at nine thirty eight…
The first computer programmer in history was a woman in the 19th century.
Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine, Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, in…
Napoleon Bonaparte was once attacked by a horde of rabbits.
During a treaty celebration in eighteen hundred and seven, Napoleon organized a rabbit hunt. The rabbits, instead of…
The Australian military lost the Great Emu War in nineteen thirty two.
The Australian military was mobilized to control the emu population devastating crops in Western Australia. Despite…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than to the construction of the pyramids.
The Great Pyramids were built around 2560 BC, while Cleopatra lived in the 1st century BC. The time difference…
The shortest war in history lasted less than an hour.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 lasted between 38 and 45 minutes. The Sultanate of Zanzibar surrendered quickly after…