If you’re like me and a bit of a history buff, you’re in the right place! You’ll love reading these interesting facts about historical events, people, and ancient civilizations.
Here, we bring together the most interesting & unknown history fact pictures that you didn’t know you needed to know!
From World War I to crazy historic civilizations, these interesting facts should leave you more knowledgeable than before.
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History Facts
In the 3rd century BC, the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos proposed that the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun.
Silent movie actors were initially not given on-screen credit for fear that they would become famous and subsequently demand higher wages.
In 1943, off the Russell Islands, USS O’Bannon’s crew threw potatoes at a Japanese submarine’s deck crew to keep them from their gun before sinking the sub with gunfire and charges.
In the Titanic movie, crew member William Murdoch shot a passenger and then took his own life. In real life, he went down with the ship while filling lifeboats and saving lives.
Arthur Guy Empey’s 1917 trench memoir “Over the Top” is the first known use of “thumbs-up” as approval, where British soldiers on the Western Front used it to mean “everything’s fine.”
Nutella was invented during World War II when an Italian pastry maker mixed hazelnuts into chocolate to extend his chocolate ration.
In 1991, Yugoslav tank driver Vladimir Živković deserted the Vukovar front by driving his tank to Belgrade and parking it outside the federal parliament in protest.
Humans have been using yeast to produce alcohol for over 13,000 years, with evidence of beer brewing dating back to 11,000 BC in modern-day Israel.
Casimir Zeglen, a Polish priest, invented a silk bulletproof vest and personally demonstrated its effectiveness by wearing it during public tests where he was shot at.
In the 1940s, air conditioning became popular in movie theaters and was advertised as “cool entertainment.”
Mosquitoes helped the Continental Army during the American Revolution by spreading malaria among British troops.
Blacksmiths aren’t the only type of smiths; whitesmiths, for example, work with tin and other lighter-colored metals.
In the opening credits of Gilligan’s Island, as the SS Minnow sails out of the harbor, flags can be seen in the background flying at half-mast to honor the death of JFK.
In the 1st century AD, Scotland was among the few countries that the Roman Empire attempted, but failed, to conquer.
After the Titanic disaster, survivors and the families of victims filed claims totaling $16 million, but White Star Line contested liability and settled in 1915 for just $664,000.
In the 1800s, some wealthy people wore dentures made from teeth pulled from dead soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo; these later became known as “Waterloo teeth.”
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was mainly constructed between 1163 and 1260, though work on details continued for centuries.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, Buzz conducted a private communion service, drinking wine from a silver chalice he’d brought from his church.
In 1998, grade school children in Aurora, Colorado, raised $35,000 to buy the freedom of child slaves in Sudan.
On February 17, 1974, Army private Robert K. Preston landed a stolen helicopter on the White House lawn to demonstrate his flying skills after being denied entry to flight school.
In 1941, before the US entered WWII, many Americans mailed tea to Buckingham Palace as a sign of support to England. The Queen, being good and proper, sent thank-you notes.
Clocks turned “clockwise” because of sundials. As the sun moves across the Northern Hemisphere’s sky, the shadow it casts moves clockwise.
