How long have humans been using rope? Prehistoric man started using rope over 50,000 years ago. Rope is an incredibly important invention in the history of humankind. We might not think about it now because we have nails, screws, Velcro, wood, solder, and a hundred other ways to keep things together, but prehistoric people only […]
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Why is New York called New York? New York is called New York because it was named in honor of the British Duke of York. Before European people colonized the Americas, the Algonquian speaking Native Americans lived in the area where New York is now. The Algonquian speaking people were the largest indigenous group in North
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How did the neck verse save people from being hanged in England? The benefit of clergy was known as the neck verse and it was an English law that allowed people to escape hanging if they could memorize Psalm 51:3. Latin: “Miserere mei, Deus, secundum misericordiam tuam; et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum dele iniquitatem meam.”
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Why are traffic lights red, yellow, and green? Because they cannot be mistaken for each other and we have learned that red means danger and green means go. When they were invented, traffic lights used white to mean “go”, green for “caution” and red for “stop”. The first traffic lights were not made for cars.
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Why were alarm clocks the first consumer goods to stop being rationed during World War 2? Because, as you would expect, people couldn’t wake up in time to work. People have used many different methods to wake themselves up over the centuries. Some people relied on church bells. Some people used elaborate systems with candles
When were latitude and longitude invented? Latitude in about 600 BC and longitude in AD 1736. Latitude are the horizontal lines that measure your distance to the north or the south of the equator. Longitude are the vertical lines that measure your distance to the east or west of 0, which has been set as
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Why do we say north, east, south, and west? The cardinal directions north, east, south, and west came about because of the position of the sun in the sky. Nobody has any idea when the idea of cardinal directions came about. Early civilizations would have had no need for directions such as north and south
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Where did the circus come from? The modern circus was invented in 1768, but the idea of a show in an amphitheater goes back thousands of years. The word “circus” comes from Greek, through Latin into English. It simply means “ring” or “circle” and the Romans used them to show horse and chariot races, battle
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When did supermarkets start? The first supermarket was opened in 1916. Most of us don’t think twice about pushing a cart around a supermarket and then heading to the cash register to pay. However, that is a concept that is only slightly over 100 years old. A few changes in society had to happen before
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When were credit cards invented? The first use of the phrase “credit card” was in 1887. A credit card is a system whereby a customer can pay for goods using a line of credit from the credit card provider. The credit card provider basically pays for the goods upfront, and the customer reimburses the credit
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