The world's first Buddhist ruler, Emperor Ashoka, who ruled India from 274-232 BCE, was the first ruler in human history to ban slavery, the death penalty, animal cruelty, and deforestation. He even advocated gender equality in education and religious institutions.
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France’s King Louis XIV was offered biological weapons by an Italian chemist. He not only refused, but also paid the chemist an annual salary to never reveal the technology to anyone else.
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Leonardo Da Vinci predicted the mass use of solar energy as long ago as 1447.
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When Charles Darwin first discovered the Galapagos Tortoises, he tried to ride them!
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Unsinkable Sam (nickname of a German ship's cat) who served on 3 warships, one German, two British, all sank in action. The cat survived each sinking, floating away on wooden planks to rescue.
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A Kodak engineer constructed the first digital camera in 1975. They didn't want to go digital. They went bankrupt in 2012.
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Recently, archaeologists excavating in the old medieval town of Odense in Denmark uncovered 700-year-old barrels of poop - and, to their surprise, they still smelt.
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