The first photograph of a person took ten minutes to expose.
Why it is true
In the famous image of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, the street looks empty because the traffic didn't stay still long enough. Only a man getting his shoes shined stayed still long enough to be captured.
Source: Getty Museum
Would you rather be asked first?
This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.
Related facts
It is estimated that about 100 billion human beings have ever lived on Earth.
The first oranges cultivated in history were actually green, not orange.
The University of Al Quaraouiyine in Morocco is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world.
The first photograph in history took eight hours to take.


