Contrary to popular belief, the first ironclad warships were built by Korea in the 16th century.
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Genghis Khan exempted the poor and clergy from taxes, encouraged literacy, and established free religion, leading many peoples to join his empire before they were even conquered.
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In the 1830s, a Greek prime minister tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren't interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People then started stealing these potatoes so much that the crop spread to all of Greece.
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The flushing toilet was invented in 1596, not by Thomas Crapper as most people think, but by Sir John Harington.
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The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
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Leonardo Da Vinci made a robotic lion in 1515 that would walk, sway, open its mouth and move its tail - it even had a compartment that opened to present flowers.
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London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight in 1807!
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