History Facts
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Daily facts about the fascinating world of history 🕰️
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The Aztecs regarded childbirth as a form of battle. Women who died giving birth to a child were thought to rise to the highest of heavens, the same as the one male warriors go to when they die in battle.
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Russia ran out of vodka celebrating the end of World War II! When the long war ended, street parties engulfed the Soviet Union, lasting for days–until all of the nation’s vodka reserves ran out a mere 22 hours after the partying started.
#History
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In 1644, English statesman, Oliver Cromwell, banned the eating of pie. He declared it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.
#History
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At the height of his popularity, Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition in San Francisco. He came in 20th place.
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Did you know Abraham Lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame? The 6’4″ president had only one loss among his around 300 contests. He earned a reputation for this in New Salem, Illinois, as an elite fighter.
#History
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The U.S. bought Alaska for 2 cents an acre from Russia.
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It was only 66 years between when the Wright brothers took their first flight and the first Moon landing.
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The word “quarantine” comes from quarantena, meaning “forty days” in 14th century Venetian. The Venetians imposed a 40-day isolation of ships and people arriving in their lagoon during the Black Death.
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Only one Viking helmet has ever been found – in a Viking grave in southern Norway. It did not have horns, as many people would like to believe!
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In 1487 the Aztecs of central Mexico sacrificed 20,000 people in four days. The queues of victims, in four lines, were over 3 kilometres (1.8 miles) long.
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Iceland has the world’s oldest parliament in history. Called the Althing, it was established in 930 AD and has stayed as the acting parliament of Iceland since then.
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496,777 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II were alive in 2018.
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When Voltaire was asked to renounce Satan on his deathbed, his last words were: "This is no time for making new enemies."
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The parachute was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1515.
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King Henry VIII of England had a suit of armour made for his dog.
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The U.S. bought Alaska for 2 cents an acre from Russia.
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The great Omaha Indian Chief Blackbird was said to have loved his horse so much that he was buried sitting on top of it.
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The term berserk means “bare shirt” in Norse, the Viking language. The Vikings were fearless warriors who went into battle bare chested whatever the weather!
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The English conquered Ireland in the 12th century, but by the 1400s they controlled only a small area around Dublin called “The Pale”. The phrase “beyond the pale” is taken from the wild and unconquered places in Ireland outside English rule.
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Cleopatra was not Egyptian. She traced her family origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
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King Henry VIII of England had servants who were called "Grooms of Stool" whose job was to wipe his bottom after he went to the bathroom. During his reign, he had all of those four such people knighted.
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The most feared pilot of World War I was German, Manfred von Richthofen, also known as The Red Baron, who shot down over 80 enemy planes.
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Celtic people are believed to have spread the genes for red hair.
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The longest year on record was 46 BC – the year Julius Caesar introduced his new calendar. As well as adding 2 extra months, he had to create 23 added days in February to make up the difference from the previous Egyptian calendar. So 46 BC had 455 days rather than the usual 365!
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The oldest country in the world, San Marino, also has the first constitution. It was written in 1600.
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It was the custom in ancient Rome for men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. The modern term ‘testimony’ is derived from this tradition.
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During World War II, a Great Dane named Juliana was awarded the Blue Cross Medal. She extinguished an incendiary bomb by peeing on it!
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The Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1876, the same year as the Battle of Little Bighorn.
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The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".
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It was only 66 years between when the Wright brothers took their first flight and the first Moon landing.
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On a 1902 hunting trip, American President Teddy Roosevelt took pity on an old bear and refused to shoot her. New York shop owner Morris Michtom commemorated the event by making the world’s first “teddy bear” – named after the president.
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San Marino is the oldest country in the world. It was established in 301 AD.
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King Henry VIII of England had servants who were called "Grooms of Stool" whose job it was to wipe his bottom after he went to the bathroom. During his reign, he had all of those four such people knighted.
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Napoleon took 187,600 horses with his army as he rode into Russia in 1812 during the French invasion, only 1,600 came back.
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Cleopatra was not Egyptian. She traced her family origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals.
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The Roman Empire was not the largest empire in history. It was only the 28th largest.
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The Roman Empire was not the largest empire in history. It was only the 28th largest.
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The pirate Blackbeard once shot one of his crew in the knee for no apparent reason, leaving him crippled for life. He did it to scare his fellow pirates.
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The Romans were the first to put an image of a living person on coins.
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The first cell phone call was made in 1973. Martin Cooper, the Motorola employee who made the call, called his rival at Bell Labs to let him know he'd been beaten.
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A popular drink today, Coca Cola included cocaine in its original formula!
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The only statue from classical Rome to remain largely unmolested and on public display for nearly 2,000 years is the Equestrian statue of emperor Marcus Aurelius. Erected in the late 2nd century AD, it was finally put inside a museum in the 1980s.
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Sucking a king's nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland.
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The world’s oldest monarchy is the Imperial House of Japan, said to have been established on 11 February 660BC.
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Celtic people are believed to have spread the genes for red hair.
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In ancient Greece, throwing an apple at someone was done to declare one's love.
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Augustus Caesar was the wealthiest man to ever live in history. Nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, Emperor Augustus had an estimated net worth of $460 billion when counting for inflation.
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Julius Caesar invented the Leap Year in 46 B.C. when he proposed the 'Julian calender' which was based on the Earth's rotations of the sun.
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In Egypt around 1500 B.C., a shaved head was considered the ultimate in feminine beauty.
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Under the reign of Henry VIII, around 70,000 people were executed. That’s a lot of heads rolling on the floor!
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Around one in every 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.
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On 28 January 1896, Walter Arnold drove his “horseless carriage” through Paddock Wood, Kent, at a reckless 8 mph. Arnold was chased down by a police officer on a bicycle, and later fined £4 and 7 shillings leading to the world’s first recorded speeding ticket.
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Homo luzonensis, a new species of 3ft tall human, was found in a Philippines' cave in 2019.
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Sir Isaac Newton was only 23 years old when he discovered the law of universal gravitation.
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When Columbus "discovered" the Americas, the continent was already inhabited by 90 million people, which was a third of the world's population.
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The word "Senate" in Latin means "group of elders" (same root as senile).
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There are more people in slavery today than at any time in human history.
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From the 1200s, the samurai began to dominate Japan. A samurai’s two-handed sword, the katana, could slice a man in half with a single stroke.
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The pyramids of Egypt are the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only one still surviving.
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In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people Died.
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Potatoes were first grown by the Incas in Peru about 7,000-10,000 years ago. Its name comes from the Incan word "papa" and the Indian word "batata."
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The name of the woman on the statue of liberty is Mother of Exiles.
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The 1,000 year old Kee Monastery in India, situated 13,668 ft above sea level.
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During the Salem witch trials of 1692 the accused witches weren’t actually burned at the stake in Massachusetts. The majority were jailed, and some were hanged. But none of the 2,000 people accused ever got burned alive.
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Celtic people are believed to have spread the genes for red hair.
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Persians were also known as pioneers in ventilation, cooling systems and refrigeration technology.
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On a 1902 hunting trip, American President Teddy Roosevelt took pity on an old bear and refused to shoot her. New York shop owner Morris Michtom commemorated the event by making the world’s first “teddy bear” – named after the president.
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Saturn was discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, but its rings were only discovered in 1659 by Christiaan Huygens.
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Did you know Abraham Lincoln is in the wrestling hall of fame? The 6'4" president had only one loss among his 300 contests. He earned a reputation for this in New Salem, Illinois, as an elite fighter.
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The oldest evidence of humans keeping domesticated cats is 9500 years old. Archeologists discovered cat bones and human bones in a Neolithic grave in Cyprus that dates back to 9-8 BC.
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14 years before the infamous Titanic sank, author Morgan Robertson wrote the novella Futility. It was about the large unsinkable ship "Titan" hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic. What’s even weirder is the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats.
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Teddy Roosevelt, was a respected veteran of World War One, where he’d been shot and gassed. Despite being in his mid-50s, he participated in D-Day as the only US general to storm the Normandy beaches in the first wave.
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Leif Erikson is regarded as the first European to land in North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus.
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In the Victorian era, men with mustaches used special cups. Pragmatically called “mustache cups,” these specially-made mugs had guards on them which prevented a man’s mustache from dipping into their warm cup of tea!
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In 400 BC the Greek city of Sparta had just 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves. That’s 20 slaves each!
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Due to the United States Trade Embargo in 1958, Cubans have kept more 1950s cars in operation than anywhere else.
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New research suggests that 15–20 million people were murdered or imprisoned by the Nazis during the Holocaust, much more than previously believed.
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Richard the Lionheart only spent six months of his ten-year reign in England.
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The Circus Maximum in Rome is still the largest capacity sports arena ever built. It was used for the execution of prisoners, part of the Roman Triumph, and chariot racing. Historians believe the Circus Maximum could hold between 150,000 ~ 250,000 people at any given time.
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President Ronald Reagan was also a prolific lifeguard who saved 77 people from drowning.
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The Aztecs sacrificed 1% of their population every year, or about 250,000 people.
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Galileo's middle finger is on display at a museum in Florence, Italy.
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Draco “The Lawgiver” was the first person to establish law in Athens in 621 BC. The punishment for any crime – any at all – was death. Very severe laws are now said to be “Draconian”.
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Strangely, Abraham Lincoln gave the order to establish the Secret Service hours before he was killed.
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Over the course of time, 79 per cent of history was never recorded. Not good news for history enthusiasts!
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Lions were native to many parts of Europe before 300 BCE. They were so common in Greece that Ancient Greek writers like Aristotle and Herodotus wrote about them. Unfortunately, they were hunted to extinction by 100 BCE.
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Around 7% of all wars in history were religiously motivated.
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The Spanish Armada was a fleet of warships belonging to King Phillip II of Spain. It had 130 ships with 30,000 troops and 2,500 guns. In 1588, during the reign of Elizabeth I, the Spanish Armada attacked England before suffering a famous defeat at the hands of Sir Francis Drake.
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In 455 AD, the Vandals sacked Rome with such ferocity that the word vandalism came to mean “senseless destruction”.
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Chocolate for most of its 4,000-year history was actually consumed as a bitter beverage rather than as a sweet edible treat.
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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell doing selfies 60 years before they were a thing.
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Napoleon took 187,600 horses with his army as he rode into Russia in 1812, only 1,600 came back.
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