Aboriginal Australians have one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Scientists think they've lived in the area for more than 40,000 years, or 2,000 generations. By 7000 B.C.—more than 9,000 years ago—early farmers had cultivated wheat and barley in a continuous zone that stretched from western Turkey to modern Pakistan.
Corn became the world's first genetically modified crop over 4,000 years ago. Farmers transformed it from a wild Mexican grass with edible seeds into a staple food for millions of people. London's sewer system, masterminded by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, opened in 1865 with 1,200 miles of tunnels beneath the city. This engineering marvel eradicated cholera and other waterborne diseases.
Benjamin Franklin’s concept for the lightning rod remains virtually unchanged to this day. The 200-year-old invention still protects modern buildings all over the world.
Maize is the world's leading crop. Of the 45,000 products on the shelves of an average supermarket, one-third are derived from it. Benjamin Franklin’s concept for the lightning rod remains virtually unchanged to this day. The 200-year-old invention still protects modern buildings all over the world.
Two out of three people who contracted the bubonic plague in the 14th century died. A surprising ingredient helped make ancient Roman concrete a hard-setting and powerful building material: volcanic ash. Rubber—which Europeans first discovered after Christopher Columbus noticed it in the West Indies—got its English name in 1770 when a British scientist found it could be used to rub out pencil marks.
The first known text on the study of mathematics dates back 3,600 years. It was written by an Egyptian scribe named Ahmes.
Rubber—which Europeans first discovered after Christopher Columbus noticed it in the West Indies—got its English name in 1770 when a British scientist found it could be used to rub out pencil marks.
Medieval doctors often prescribed a drink that contained powdered gold as a cure for arthritis.
John Harrington, a Tudor-era poet and godson to Queen Elizabeth I, developed England's first flushable toilet in the 1590s. According to recent studies, the Maya were producing rubber products 3,000 years before Charles Goodyear received his patent for rubber vulcanization in 1843. In March 1848 the non-native population of California was roughly 800. Just 20 months later, following the massive influx of settlers during the Gold Rush, it had risen to more than 100,000.
According to recent studies, the Maya were producing rubber products 3,000 years before Charles Goodyear received his patent for rubber vulcanization in 1843. Scientists estimate that by 10,000 B.C. Earth's population had reached 1 million. The hottest day on record was September 13, 1922, when the temperature in the Al Aziziyah district of Libya hit 136 degrees Fahrenheit. The U.S. record was set in Death Valley, California, where it reached 134 degrees on July 10, 1913.
At its height in the 1400s, the Inca empire's highly sophisticated system of irrigated, terraced farm plots covered more than 2.4 million acres of land across South America. There were 80,000 miles of wires used in the Golden Gate Bridge. If they were stretched together from end to end, they could circle the Earth at the Equator three times. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi—who was much more a tinkering engineer than a scientist—freely admitted he didn't really understand how his invention worked. The compass was invented in China in the fourth century B.C. Its first use was as a mystical tool, meant to bring order and harmony to a person's life—a practice we now know as "feng shui." It would be more than 1,300 years before it was used for traditional navigation.
During World War II, Allied decryption specialists used a number of unconventional methods to enlist and screen the men and women who worked as codebreakers at England's main codebreaking facility, Bletchley Park. In one famous example, participants in a newspaper crossword competition who solved the puzzle in 12 minutes or less were recruited.
More than 2,700 people have successfully climbed Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, located in the Himalayas in Nepal. However, more than 200 climbers have died during failed attempts to scale the mountain, which rises some 29,000 feet above sea level. Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, did not learn to read until age 10, probably because of dyslexia. He went on to an esteemed career as an academic and university president before entering politics.
Fireworks were first invented in China during the 10th century and were used to scare away evil spirits. Chinese culture celebrates its technological advancements known as the Four Great Inventions: printing, papermaking, gunpowder and the compass. By the 15th century, the Inca had cultivated a wide variety of foods, including squash, peanuts, beans, peppers, more than 20 types of corn and almost 240 varieties of potatoes.
The ancient Sumerian counting system was based on the number 12. It survives today in our 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, 24-hour day and 360-degree circle. An estimated 30 to 50 million people died in the 1918 flu pandemic. This was almost 3 percent of the global population. The world's oldest existing bottle of wine is 1,650 years old. It was produced around 350 A.D. near a Roman colony in Germany, and has never been opened.
Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital. By the late 1880s, nearly one-third of China's 370 million citizens had become users of opium, a drug introduced by the British 50 years earlier. In medieval times, bed bugs were chiefly a problem for wealthy people, who tended to have the warmest homes.
The bubonic plague was one of history's first biological weapons. Invading armies would catapult diseased corpses into towns to spread the disease. Nearly a third of Europe's population died during the Black Death, an outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1340s. Recent DNA testing on the mummies of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen and his family suggested that the boy king's parents were brother and sister. Chinese floods in the 1330s were partly to blame for history's greatest biological disaster. Flood waters displaced the black rats that spread the plague known as the Black Death. When England and the American colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, 11 days were skipped over. People went to bed on September 2 and woke up on September 14. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was related to 11 other U.S. presidents by either blood or marriage. The catastrophic 1889 flood that struck Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in May 1889 killed more than 2,200 people and was the first natural disaster relief effort handled by the newly formed American Red Cross, led by Clara Barton.
Before the invention of the printing press in the 1450s, the average scribe produced roughly two handwritten pages a day. It could take up to three years to complete a single copy of the Bible. On December 16, 1811, a severe earthquake struck the eastern United
It is believed that as many as 400,000 people died during the Great Wall of China's construction; many of these workers were buried within the wall itself. Early coins, made primarily of gold or silver, were often shaved down around the edges, with people pocketing the excess precious metal for profit. Ridges, or “milling,” were introduced to prevent any tampering with currency. The world's first traffic light predated the automobile by almost 20 years. A man-operated machine, it was installed in 1868 to control carriage traffic in London, England. It exploded just a month later, seriously wounding its police operator. Early coins, made primarily of gold or silver, were often shaved down around the edges, with people pocketing the excess precious metal for profit. Ridges, or “milling,” were introduced to prevent any tampering with currency.
The typewriter was invented in 1873 by two Wisconsin men who hired New York-based firearm manufacturers E. Remington and Sons to produce their machine. The first "Remingtons" hit the market the following year. At the start of the Civil War, the South had only one working cannon foundry: Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia. The first railroad to move both freight and passengers opened in September 1825. Britain's Stockton & Darlington rail line transported 6 coal cars and 21 passenger cars and hit a top speed of 9 mph. Toilet paper was introduced by the Chinese in the sixth century, but due to the high cost of paper only the emperor and his family were initially permitted to use it. The Eiffel Tower was originally meant to be a temporary structure to be torn down after 20 years. Constructed in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and serve as an attraction at that year's World's Fair, it became an instant sensation.
At its height in the 1400s, the Inca empire's highly sophisticated system of irrigated, terraced farm plots covered more than 2.4 million acres of land across South America. The Eiffel Tower was originally meant to be a temporary structure to be torn down after 20 years. Constructed in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution and serve as an attraction at that year's World's Fair, it became an instant sensation. Printer Johannes Gutenberg produced approximately 180 copies of his famed Bible in 1455. Only 48 are still in existence today, and only 16 of them are complete versions of the original work. The world's first regularly scheduled airplane route was launched in January 1914. It ferried passengers 18 miles between the Florida cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa, costing $5 for a one-way ticket. It folded just a few months later.
In 1931, the Hoover Dam became the first construction site to legally require its workers to wear protective hard hats. The Hindu temple at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, is the largest religious structure in the world. Built in the 12th century to honor the god Vishnu, the complex covers roughly 400 acres.
On August 4, 1922, telephone service in the United States and Canada was suspended for one minute to honor inventor Alexander Graham Bell, whose funeral was held that day. America's first lady from 1889 to 1892, Benjamin Harrison's wife Carolina oversaw the installation of electric lighting in the White House. However, she and her husband were so intimidated by the technology that they relied on staff members to turn the lights on and off.
The introduction of the cotton gin revolutionized the textile industry. In 1800, the United States exported $5 million worth of cotton; by 1860, this figure was $191 million, or 57 percent of the nation's total exports.
The roads built by ancient Roman engineers throughout the empire were 12 feet wide. That's the same width as a lane in today's interstate highway systems. In 1903, New York City merchant Thomas Sullivan began giving away samples of tea in small, hand-sewn bags. Instead of removing the loose tea, customers began brewing them intact, creating the first tea bags. Alexander Graham Bell is credited as the inventor, in the 1870s, of the first practical telephone. He later refused to have a telephone in his study, fearing it would distract him from his scientific work. The first Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog was distributed in 1893. By the early 1900s, it was possible to buy nearly anything through the mail-order catalog, including pre-fabricated houses.
Alexander Graham Bell is credited as the inventor, in the 1870s, of the first practical telephone. He later refused to have a telephone in his study, fearing it would distract him from his scientific work. The largest and oldest of the pyramids at Giza, the Great Pyramid was built for the pharaoh Khufu in the 25th century B.C. It took only 66 years to get from the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903 to the first lunar landing in 1969. The first product to be scanned using a bar code was a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum, at an Ohio supermarket in June 1974.
Within 15 years of the telephone's invention in 1876, the United States counted more than 5 million of the devices. At a time when most people never traveled more than 20 miles from their homes, Benjamin Franklin crossed the Atlantic eight times and spent a total of 27 years overseas, mostly in England and France. Arabic numerals were actually invented in India. Developed by Hindu mathematicians between the first and third centuries, the system was introduced to Europe by Arab traders, hence the term. The first written language, cuneiform, had about 3,000 different characters and was developed by the Sumerians. The earliest surviving examples date from 3100 B.C. Arabic numerals were actually invented in India. Developed by Hindu mathematicians between the first and third centuries, the system was introduced to Europe by Arab traders, hence the term.
After the American Civil War, an explosion of technology transformed every aspect of life. Between 1865 and 1900, more than 500,000 new U.S. patents were issued. By comparison, fewer than 10,000 patents were issued between 1790 and 1836. London's sewer system, masterminded by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, opened in 1865 with 1,200 miles of tunnels beneath the city. This engineering marvel eradicated cholera and other waterborne diseases. During the Industrial Revolution, cotton production in England increased from 500,000 pounds spun by hand in 1765 to 15.5 million pounds made by machine in 1784. Benjamin Franklin’s concept for the lightning rod remains virtually unchanged to this day. The 200-year-old invention still protects modern buildings all over the world.
Paper was first produced more than 1,900 years ago, during China’s Han Dynasty. One of the earliest human inventions was the atlatl, a wood or bone rod with a hook at one end that fit into the base of a spear. Hunters used it to kill prey from afar.
The world's first telephone directory was published in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1878, just two years after the phone's invention. The 20-page guide included user instructions as well as resident and business names. Rubber—which Europeans first discovered after Christopher Columbus noticed it in the West Indies—got its English name in 1770 when a British scientist found it could be used to rub out pencil marks.
The U.S. Mint produces between 14 and 20 billion new circulating coins every year.
Medieval merchants developed an early credit card system in which notches were made on a wooden stick called a tally. The sticks were split in two; the creditor kept one half and the debtor the other.