10 History Wtf Fun Facts That Will Surprise You

 

1. When was coffee invented?

The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherder who discovered coffee when noticed how excited his goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is probably apocryphal. The original domesticated coffee plant is said to have been from Harar in Ethiopia.

2. When was the first leap year?

The first leap year. The first leap year in the modern sense was 1752, when 11 days were 'lost' from the month September with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by Britain and her colonies.

3. Who calculated the circumference of the earth?

Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth without leaving Egypt.(~276 BC to ~195 BC).He used the fact that at noon, the Sun was directly overhead at the city of Syene, in Egypt. Then at Alexandria, about 500 miles north, he measured the length of shadow made by a tall straight rod. From the triangle made by the shadow and the rod, he calculated the Earth’s circumference to be about 24,800 miles.

A thousand or so years later, people with more accurate instruments found it to be 24,901 miles. Not bad for a guy with only a stick in the ground.

4. When did Mozart write his first symphony?

The Symphony No. 1 in E flat major, K. 16, was written in 1764 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the age of eight years. By this time, he was already notable in Europe as a wunderkind performer, but had composed little music.

5. What was the name of the capital of New Spain?

The Spanish governed New Spain from Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan: the conquered capital of the Aztec Empire. It was ruled by a viceroy, governing the various territories on behalf of the King of Spain.

6. When was New York the capital of America?

The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the country's largest city since 1790.

7. What color was originally associated with Saint Patrick's Day?

A particular blue hue was known as St. Patrick blue and for hundreds of years it was this blue that was associated with the holiday. However, green became the dominant color of St Patrick's day over time as the holiday was used to highlight Irish nationalism against British rule in the 1790s.

8. Who invented the tea bag in 1908?

A thrifty tea merchant from New York named Thomas Sullivan is credited with inventing the first tea bag in 1908. Looking to save money, Sullivan reportedly distributed small samples of tea in silk bags instead of little metal tins.

9. When was the cigarette lighter invented?

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. The first lighter was produced in 1816 by a German chemist named Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner. "Döbereiner's lamp," as it was called, was a (highly dangerous) cartridge filled with hydrogen and triggered by a platinum catalyst.

10. Where was beer invented?

In Mesopotamia (Ancient Iraq), early evidence of beer is a 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honoring Ninkasi, the patron goddess of brewing, which contains the oldest surviving beer recipe, describing the production of beer from barley via bread. It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.