I Learned This Today

#1822 Who was the most important person in early Christianity after Jesus?

October 2, 2026 / Leave a Comment

Who was the most important person in early Christianity after Jesus? There is no obvious “most important” person, but Peter, James, Paul the Apostle, and Constantine the Great were all extremely important. Obviously, Christianity wouldn’t exist without Jesus Christ, but in the early days, the likelihood that it would become the global religion it did […]

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#1821 How did sailors get fresh drinking water?

October 1, 2026 / Leave a Comment

How did sailors get fresh drinking water? Sailors got fresh drinking water from the barrels stored on the ship, rainwater, stocking up whenever they made land, and occasionally desalination. These days, most of us rarely use a boat. If we do, it might be a short ferry crossing, or possibly a cruise. We don’t give

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#1820 Why did armies use brightly colored uniforms?

September 30, 2026 / Leave a Comment

Why did armies use brightly colored uniforms? Armies used to use brightly colored uniforms so that the commanders could easily see their troops, prevent friendly fire, project national pride, instill fear in the enemy, and help to direct a battle. This stopped with the development of modern conventional weapons and tactics. Warriors have worn one

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#1819 What was miasma theory?

September 29, 2026 / Leave a Comment

What was miasma theory? Miasma theory was the idea that diseases such as cholera and the plague were caused by a noxious form of bad air called miasma, which is the ancient Greek word for pollution. Miasma as a theory lasted for over two thousand five hundred years and only disappeared when microorganisms were discovered

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#1819 How did people first discover Ice Ages?

September 28, 2026 / Leave a Comment

How did people first discover Ice Ages? The first scientific theory of ice ages was proposed by Louis Agassiz in 1837. However, people had theorized about them for several hundreds of years before that. Earth has been through five ice ages so far. At least as far as we know. There may have been

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#1818 What happened to the Franklin expedition?

September 27, 2026 / Leave a Comment

What happened to the Franklin expedition? All 129 crew members and officers died when their ships were trapped in ice just off King William Island, which is north of Canada. The Franklin expedition was commanded by Sir John Franklin. He was a British naval officer, an explorer, and a colonial administrator. He had led several

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#1817 How was the City of Ur lost and then found again?

September 26, 2026 / Leave a Comment

How was the City of Ur lost and then found again? Ur was lost because of political collapse, terrible invasions, and environmental changes. There was a suspected ancient city known about at the site for hundreds of years, but it was finally excavated and identified at the end of the 19th century. The City of

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#1816 Why does roulette have a 0?

September 25, 2026 / Leave a Comment

Why does roulette have a 0? A roulette wheel has a 0 to increase the odds that you will lose and the house will win. A European roulette wheel and an American roulette wheel are slightly different. They both have numbers from 1 to 36, but a European wheel only has 0, while an American

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#1815 What will happen to the Milky Way in 1 trillion years time?

September 24, 2026 / Leave a Comment

What will happen to the Milky Way in 1 trillion years time? Some or perhaps most of the galaxies in the Local Group may have merged by then, although it is no longer certain that even the Milky Way and Andromeda will merge. No stars outside of that galaxy would be visible to any beings

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#1814 What was debtors’ prison?

September 23, 2026 / Leave a Comment

What was debtors’ prison? A debtors’ prison was, as the name suggests, a prison for people who were unable to pay their debts. The majority of the world runs on the system of debt. People borrow money to pay for things they can’t afford at the time. Mortgages for houses and credit card for other

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