Random History Facts

    107 facts tagged with History Facts

    Modern humans first appeared about 200,000 years ago, but record keeping didn't begin until about 6,000 years ago. That means about 97% of human history is lost.
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    There are pictures of Knights fighting Snails in old Medieval manuscripts - and nobody knows why.
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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.
    9
    Yucatán Name
    Yucatán Name
    The Mexican state of Yucatán was named so after a misunderstanding when the Spaniards arrived and asked the locals what they called the place. The locals replied "Yucatan" which means "I don’t understand you" in their native tongue.
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    585 BC Solar Eclipse
    585 BC Solar Eclipse
    In 585 BC, a solar eclipse occurred in the middle of a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. They promptly ceased fighting and signed a peace treaty.
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    Leonardo Da Vinci predicted the mass use of solar energy as long ago as 1447.
    153
    The ‘@’ sign is centuries old, and was used in Europe to denote a unit of weight (the “arroba”) equivalent to 25 lbs.
    11
    Romans used a plant called Silphium as contraception. They had so much sex that they drove it into extinction.
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