Why were the Wright brothers able to fly in 1903? Because they employed a very methodical and scientific method and because of technological advances. On December 17th, 1903, at 10:35, Orville Wright flew the Wright Flyer for 12 seconds and covered 37 meters. It was the first ever powered flight. They flew three more times
#310 Why were the Wright brothers able to fly in 1903? Read More »
Why did the Olympic Games restart in 1896? Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin fought to restart the Olympics because he thought they would encourage sport among amateurs, and promote peace. The Olympic Games that was held in 1896 is often referred to as the 1st modern Olympic Games because the tradition of the games goes back
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When were the first binmen? Technically, in England in the 14th century. Trash is a tremendous problem in the world at the moment. Our refuse sites are full, we release dangerous chemicals when we burn trash, and the sea is full of plastic trash. It is easy to think that the problem of trash has
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How big was the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs? It was probably 10 km across, but it could have been anywhere between 10 and 17 km. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit Earth about 66 million years ago. Apparently, according to research, it was 66,043,000 (±11,000 years). The asteroid came down in the Yucatan
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When did people start using punctuation? The Greeks were the first people to use punctuation, but the Bible made it commonplace. Most early languages used a writing system that was based on images. There was no need for punctuation or even spaces because the ideas were contained in the symbols. Modern languages like Japanese and
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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.
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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.
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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 »
