Where did Arabic numerals come from? They evolved from a writing system created in India in the 3rd century BC. The first evidence of prehistoric humans using numbers comes from a bone dated from 43,000 years ago. It is the Lebombo bone and it is a baboon femur with 29 notches carved into it. […]
#289 Where did Arabic numerals come from? Read More »
What did the last emperor of china do later in life? He spent the last years of his life working as a road sweeper, a gardener, and an editor. The last emperor of China was Aisin-Gioro Puyi. He became emperor in 1908 at the age of two when his half-uncle died without children.
#286 What did the last emperor of China do later in life? Read More »
When did people start eating cereal for breakfast? Technically in the 1850s, but it didn’t catch on until the early 1900s. The first breakfast cereal (albeit hot) was invented by Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant living in America. He used a hand grinder to grind oats that he then sold for oatmeal. The oats were
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I learned this today. When was the first passenger train? The first passenger train was Locomotion No. 1. It departed on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on September 27th, 1825. Railways go back thousands of years, but they haven’t always been used to carry people. The earliest railway ever discovered was in Greece, built in
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I learned this today. Instant coffee was technically invented in 1771, but this wasn’t really instant. Instant coffee that we would recognize today was invented in 1890. These days, instant coffee is coffee that has either been freeze-dried or spray dried. The two methods differ slightly, and freeze-drying is more expensive. When coffee is freeze-dried,
#277 When was instant coffee invented? Read More »
I learned this today. The Nazca lines were made using wooden stakes and ropes to make them straight. Then the top layer of soil was removed. How the Nazca lines were made is an easier question to answer than why they were made. First of all, let’s look at what the Nazca lines actually are.
#273 How were the Nazca Lines made? Read More »
I learned this today. The Iron Age started because iron and steel reached the point where it was stronger than bronze, and the Bronze Age collapsed. The Iron Age is the third of the three-age history division of prehistory. It doesn’t have one starting point because it varies from region to region. The earliest start
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I learned this today. The Tunguska event was probably a meteor air burst that exploded over Eastern Siberia on June 30th, 1908. Today, as of writing, it is the 114th anniversary of the Tunguska event. Early in the morning of Tuesday, June 30th, 1908, there was a bluish light almost as bright as the sun,
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I learned this today. The first lawyers appeared in the Roman Empire in the time of Emperor Claudius who ruled from AD 41 to 54. In ancient time there was no such thing as lawyers. The law was discharged by the king, chief, or head of the group of people. As leaders became more powerful,
#269 When were the first lawyers? Read More »
I learned this today. Rome became a republic because the last king of the Roman Kingdom was overthrown. The Kingdom of Rome was founded in 753 BC. There is no written evidence for this. It all comes from oral histories. All of the histories that we can look at were written when Rome had become
#267 Why did Rome become a republic? Read More »
