History Facts Generator

• [History fact 1] In the 1st century A.D., Greek mathematician Heron of Alexandria invented the first known automatic door. He described two different automatic door applications. The first application was used to open temple doors. The device used heat from a fire lit by the city's temple priest. After a few hours, atmospheric pressure built up in a brass vessel caused it to pump water into adjacent containers. These containers acted as weights that, through a series of ropes and pulleys, would open the temple's doors at about the time people were to arrive for prayer. Heron used a similar application to open the gates to the city.

  Architecture, History, Sciencesource

• [History fact 2] In ancient Rome, one of the most common cooking ingredients was called “laser”, from the silphium plant. It does not exist today. It was so delicious that it was harvested to extinction from its natural habitat in what is now Libya. We think that it probably tasted something like garlic.

  Food, History, Plantssource

• [History fact 3] Of the 3400 years of recorded history, only 268 are considered peaceful.

  Historysource

• [History fact 4] Before Saladin died in 1193, he had given away all his wealth to his poor subjects. His estate consisted of 1 piece of gold and 40 pieces of silver, not enough to pay for his funeral.

  History, Peoplesource

• [History fact 5] Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula has no rivers, lakes, or streams. The Maya relied on the flooded mouths of underwater caves, called cenotes, for all of their freshwaters.

  History, Naturesource

• [History fact 6] The first man-made object to reach the stratosphere was a meter long shell fired from the Paris Gun, used by the Germans in World War 1 to bombard Paris from 80 miles away. The curvature of the earth had to be considered when calculating where the shells would land.

  History, Weaponssource

• [History fact 7] In 1925, women in Bridgeport, Connecticut started reporting “Phantom Stabber” who would use a sharp, pointed weapon to jab their buttocks or breasts before fleeing the scene. Victims described him as being unusually fast on his feet, disappearing while they screamed in pain. By June 1928, the Jabber’s victims numbered 26. Despite a continuous police investigation, the jabber was never identified.

  History, Mysterysource

• [History fact 8] During the French Revolution, Maximilien De Robespierre was signing a lot of people to the Guillotine for execution, even his own comrades. Long story short, he wasn't telling who was on the list so in fear of the possibility of being on the list a bunch of other revolutionaries came to “arrest” him so Maximilien shot himself in the face, but only managed to shatter his lower jaw and didn't die. They left him to bleed for a while in a cell, healed up his bleeding as best as possible, then executed him the next day.

  Badass, People, History, Peoplesource

• [History fact 9] In 945, Igor of Kiev, while attempting to collect tributes from the neighboring Drevlians, was murdered by being attached to two bent birch trees, which when released in opposite directions, tore his body in half.

  Death, Historysource

• [History fact 10] ‘Flyting’ was medieval England's version of a rap battle, in which participants would exchange witty and insulting verses.

  History, Musicsource

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