Why was the FBI formed? J. Edgar Hoover did a lot to build the FBI, but it was actually started by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 to investigate corruption in government. Policing goes back to the origins of the United States of America, but the police are not that old. In the early colonies that […]
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Why is Washington DC the capital of the United States? It was a compromise between the northern and the southern states. Washington DC was first used as the capital of America in November of 1800. It replaced the city of Philadelphia, which had been serving as the home of the Continental Congress and the capital
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When did the British empire end? People take the return of Hong Kong to China on July 1st, 1997 as the end of the British Empire, but there are three points that could be taken as the end. The British empire has its start with Elizabeth I in about 1562 when she gave permission for
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When did globalization start? Depending on your definition, either with the Silk Road, the conquest of the Americas, after the Industrial Revolution, since World War II, or when the Soviet Union ended. The word “globalization” was coined in 1961. It was made popular in an article written for the Harvard Business Review in 1983: “Globalization
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Why did early humans leave Africa? They were probably forced out by climate change, but they could have left because of their rising intelligence. Let’s look at the evidence for why paleontologists believe humans developed in Africa and then look at why they left. Humans probably separated from the common ancestor we share with other
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What was the Royal African Company? It was a British slaving company that ties the British royal family to the slave trade. Britain started kidnapping African people as slaves in 1562. It didn’t start out as a national policy, but it quickly became one. John Hawkins is credited as being the “pioneer of the English
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Why are university degrees called a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate? They were named after the people who were trying to get those degrees. Universities have been around since the 9th century. The University of Al-Karaouine in Morocco is considered to be the first university in the world. Some people say that this university
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How wild was the Wild West? Not as wild as Hollywood would like us to believe. The Wild West was the American frontier. It wasn’t called the Wild West until after the American Civil War. The general consensus is that the period of the Wild West lasted from the end of the Civil War to
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What was the first insurance company? Hamburger Feuerkasses in 1676, followed closely by Nicholas Barbon’s Insurance Office in 1680, was the first insurance company. Insurance goes back to the point where early humans stopped being hunter-gatherers and settled down. Once people started to farm a barter system arose because it makes more sense for people
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How did Galileo realize that the Earth orbits the sun? He realized it when he observed the orbit of Venus. Galileo was born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo is famous for saying that the Earth orbits the sun rather than the sun orbits the Earth, but he was not the first person to come
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