History Facts

    Random History Facts

    There are 163 History Facts!

    The flushing toilet was invented in 1596, not by Thomas Crapper as most people think, but by Sir John Harington.
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    Voltaire's Last Words
    Voltaire's Last Words
    When Voltaire was asked to renounce Satan on his deathbed, his last words were: "This is no time for making new enemies."
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    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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    In 1999, Pepsi, Inc. paid $0.00 in income tax!
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    Japanese Holdout
    Japanese Holdout
    After World War 2 ended in 1945, a Japanese officer named Hiroo Onoda didn't surrender and continued the war for 29 years because he didn't know that Japan had surrendered and the war was over.
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    In the 1830s, a Greek prime minister tried to spread the potato in Greece but people weren't interested so he put armed guards in front of shipments of potatoes so people would think they were important. People then started stealing these potatoes so much that the crop spread to all of Greece.
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    In 1987 American Airlines saved $40,000 by eliminating one olive from its First Class salads.
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    In 1982, a high school student from Los Angeles, California unscrambled the Rubik's Cube in 22.95 seconds.
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