Why was the Hoover Dam so difficult to build? Because the river was very strong and the dam was so big, the concrete would take 125 years to set. A new source of irrigation and drinking water was needed by the end of the 19th century as more and more people settled the south west […]
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What was the last Apollo mission? The last Apollo mission was Apollo 17. The Apollo program stretched from 1967 until 1972. There was supposed to be an Apollo 18, 19, and 20 but they were all cancelled. The booster for Apollo 20 was repurposed to launch Skylab, America’s first space station into orbit. The decision
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Why is Las Vegas in the desert? Because it is a good location for a stop on the new southern Californian railway line. Las Vegas wasn’t the first settlement to spring up in the desert of Utah. The area used to be lush marshland, but that all dried up and formed the Mojave Desert, except
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Where was the first artificial dam? The Jawa Dam in Jordan. Natural dams exist all over the world and can be formed by landslides or trees getting caught at a narrow point in a river. It wouldn’t be difficult for early people to see how it is possible to dam a river. However, until people
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Where did Jazz come from? It started in New Orleans in the 1890s. What is Jazz? The word “jazz” probably comes from “jasm”, a slang expression meaning pep or energy. Jazz started out as jas and didn’t become jazz until about 1916. That means jazz wasn’t really considered a separate style of music for almost
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Why is a strike called a “strike”? Because sailors in 1768 struck their ships. To strike a ship means to take off its topsail, making the ship incapable of movement. The word “stricken” comes from the same place. As in, the ship was stricken on the rocks. On a ship, the command to take down
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What is the oldest stone circle in the world? Probably the stone circles at Göbekli Tepe, which are almost 12,000 years old. A stone circle is literally a ring made of standing stones. There were many earth circles and wooden stake circles made as well, but they haven’t lasted as well as the stone circles.
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What is an anchorite? An anchorite or an anchoress were people who were walled into a small cell built into a church so that they could carry out a life of prayer and religious contemplation. Anchorites were men and anchoresses were women. The great majority of anchorites were actually women. Studies of the archives have
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How did the Vatican become a country? Benito Mussolini gave it to the Roman Catholic church in 1929. The Vatican is the world’s smallest country. It has a population of 453 people and is 0.44 square kilometers. That makes it about 2,500 times smaller than the city of Rome, which surrounds it. The Vatican is
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Why is there so much gold in Fort Knox? Because it is far enough away from any coast and is protected by the Appalachian Mountains. Fort Knox is famous worldwide for being the place where the United States keeps most of its gold. The building isn’t actually called Fort Knox. It is called the US
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