I learned this today. The first prime minister of the UK to live in 10 Downing Street was Sir Robert Walpole in 1735. 10 Downing Street is located in the City of Westminster, in London. In 960, an abbey was built there, and the area became known as “west minster” to differentiate it from the […]
#123 When did UK prime ministers start living in 10 Downing Street? Read More »
I learned this today. Fruits have been preserved as jams since at least before the ancient Greeks. Since the Paleolithic period, people have been preserving foods in different ways. Drying was the easiest way and probably the first form of preservation. Chilling would have been possible in cold climates, but not all year round. People
#121 When did people start making jam? Read More »
I learned this today. Gin was sold from a cat in London in 1739 because Captain Dudley Bradstreet found a loophole in the 1736 Gin Act. Between 1690 and 1751, England went through a period of high consumption of gin. In 1743, it was estimated that people were drinking an average of 10 liters of
#120 Why was gin sold from a cat in London in 1739? Read More »
I learned this today. People stormed the Bastille during the French Revolution not to free political prisoners but to get at its stores of gunpowder and weapons. The storming of the Bastille is taken to be the start of the French Revolution, but the revolution technically started on May 5th when a number of different
#116 Why did people storm the Bastille on July 14, 1789? Read More »
I learned this today. Smallpox was responsible for as many as 500 million deaths in the 20th century, but it was completely eradicated by December 1979. Smallpox is a disease caused by four orthopoxviruses. They are variola, vaccinia, cowpox, and monkeypox. Variola only infects humans while the other viruses can infect other animals as well.
#114 What happened to smallpox? Read More »
I learned this today. Thomas Edison used thin strips of bamboo in his early light bulbs because carbonized bamboo has a very high electrical resistance. When Edison started trying to improve the light bulb, there were two basic forms of light available: arc lights and incandescent lights. An arc light is one that makes light
#113 Why did Thomas Edison use bamboo in his light bulb? Read More »
I learned this today. The first evidence for a wedding ceremony between a man and a woman is from Mesopotamia in 2350 BC. In the time of hunter-gatherers, people lived in small groups, probably of about thirty people. Each group would have several male leaders who shared the women. They would all care for and
#112 When did people first start getting married? Read More »
I learned this today. The International Prototype of the Kilogram, kept in Paris, is not accurate enough to be the standard for all kilograms around the world. Different measures for different things have been used around the world since people began measuring things. These measurements were usually related to the human body or common things
#108 Why is the official kilogram in France no longer used? Read More »
I learned this today. Adolf Hitler had three brothers, two sisters, one half-brother, and one half-sister. Because of the things he did, it is difficult to see Hitler as a real person, but of course he was, and he has a family. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, to Alois Hitler and Klara
#107 Did Adolf Hitler have any brothers or sisters? Read More »
I learned this today. Vikings is the name given to the seafaring people from Scandinavia who raided through Europe from the late 8th century to the late 11th century. The Vikings didn’t call themselves “Vikings” and the word wasn’t used to refer to all of the people and the time period until the early 18th
#105 Why do we use the word Vikings? Read More »
