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History gets considerably more entertaining once you move past the dates, treaties, and names everyone had to memorize in school. The past is packed with details that sound suspiciously like someone made them up for a trivia night, from ancient people behaving exactly like modern internet users to famous companies existing much earlier than most of us realize. There are also some truly bizarre overlaps in the historical timeline that make entire civilizations feel either much older or much more recent than expected. Knowing these facts probably won’t make you a professional historian, but it might make you dangerously confident the next time somebody starts a trivia game. Here are 15 fun historical facts only the biggest geeks know already.
Oxford University Is Older Than the Aztec Empire
Teaching was taking place at Oxford by 1096, while the Aztec Empire didn’t emerge until centuries later. Tenochtitlán was founded in 1325, meaning students had already been studying at Oxford for more than 200 years before the future Aztec capital was established.
Nintendo Was Founded in the 1800s
Nintendo feels inseparable from video games, but the company’s story started long before anyone could imagine a Game Boy. Fusajiro Yamauchi began producing Japanese hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto in 1889, nearly a century before Nintendo entered the era that would make it a gaming giant.
Woolly Mammoths Were Still Alive When the Pyramids Existed
Most woolly mammoths disappeared thousands of years earlier, but an isolated population survived on Siberia’s Wrangel Island until roughly 4,000 years ago. That means some mammoths were still walking around after ancient Egyptians had constructed the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Abraham Lincoln Could Have Sent a Fax to a Samurai
It sounds like three different historical periods colliding, but the technology and people actually overlapped. Alexander Bain patented an early fax machine in 1843, while Lincoln lived until 1865 and Japan’s samurai class continued into the later 19th century.
Pompeii Had Its Own Version of Social Media
More than 11,000 pieces of graffiti have been discovered at Pompeii, and ancient residents weren’t limiting themselves to important declarations. They left jokes, insults, love notes, political messages, poems, reviews, and even responses to other people’s graffiti, making the city’s walls feel surprisingly familiar.
Ancient Romans Cleaned Clothes With Urine
Before reaching for modern detergent, Roman laundry workers had a considerably less appealing option. Fullers collected urine and used it to clean clothing because its ammonia made it an effective cleaning agent, with workers even treading on clothes soaking in vats of the mixture.
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Someone Actually Sold the Eiffel Tower
Con artist Victor Lustig convinced scrap-metal dealers that the French government secretly wanted to dismantle the Eiffel Tower in 1925. He successfully persuaded a dealer to pay him for the nonexistent deal, then became bold enough to return to Paris and attempt the same scam again.
George Washington’s Teeth Weren’t Made of Wood
One of the most famous facts about George Washington is actually a myth. His dentures incorporated materials including ivory, metals, and human and animal teeth, while staining and cracks in the ivory may have helped create the enduring impression that they were wooden.
Victorians Held Mummy-Unwrapping Parties
Egyptomania became so intense during the 19th century that actual Egyptian mummies became entertainment. Wealthy Victorians sometimes gathered for events where a mummy was unwrapped before an audience, while surgeon Thomas Pettigrew became particularly famous for staging public unwrappings.
Boston Was Once Flooded With Molasses
On January 15, 1919, a massive storage tank in Boston burst and released approximately 2.3 million gallons of molasses into the surrounding streets. The Great Molasses Flood sounds like a children’s book premise, but the real disaster caused enormous destruction and killed 21 people.
Roman Concrete Could Repair Its Own Cracks
Some Roman structures have survived for thousands of years, and researchers have identified one fascinating reason for their durability. A particular manufacturing technique left lime-rich components in the concrete that could react with water and help fill cracks that developed later.
Pompeii Preserved an Ancient Love Note
Among Pompeii’s thousands of surviving inscriptions is one recently revealed with advanced imaging technology. A woman named Erato apparently scratched “Erato loves” into a wall roughly 2,000 years ago, although time erased the name of whoever she loved.
The Shortest War in History Lasted Less Than an Hour
The Anglo-Zanzibar War broke out on August 27, 1896, between the British Empire and the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The fighting lasted somewhere between 38 and 45 minutes, earning it the widely cited distinction of being the shortest recorded war in history.
Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Moon Landing Than the Great Pyramid
Cleopatra VII lived from 69 to 30 BCE, more than 2,400 years after the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed around 2560 BCE. By comparison, only about 2,000 years separated Cleopatra’s lifetime from the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.
The First Traffic Ticket Was Given for Going 8 MPH
British motorist Walter Arnold was caught speeding through Paddock Wood, Kent, in 1896 at a blistering 8 mph. The speed limit was just 2 mph, and a police officer reportedly chased him down on a bicycle.
The post 15 Fun Historical Facts Only the Biggest Geeks Know Already appeared first on Den of Geek.
