Tag: history
The Surprising History of Toothpaste in Ancient Egypt
When you squeeze minty fresh toothpaste onto your brush each morning, you’re participating in a ritual with ancient roots. Long before the first tube of Crest rolled off assembly lines, ancient Egyptians were concocting their own tooth-cleaning pastes. They valued oral hygiene and invented some of the first breath mints, toothpicks and toothpaste recipes.
Pope Francis was once a bouncer at a nightclub
Before becoming the head of the Catholic Church in 2013, Pope Francis lived a much simpler life back in Argentina. In fact, he held an unusual job for a future pope - he worked as a bouncer at a nightclub.
How Shakespeare invented the Knock-Knock joke
If you've ever told a knock-knock joke or groaned at a corny one, you can thank William Shakespeare for this timeless and beloved form of humor. The Bard is renowned for pioneering over 1,700 words and phrases in the English language through his celebrated plays and sonnets. But he also may have invented one of the world's simplest — yet most entertaining — comedic setups: the knock-knock joke.
No Human Has Beat a Computer in Chess Since 2005
In 1997, the chess world experienced a historic sea change. World champion Garry Kasparov resigned in defeat against IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer. For the first time, a machine had officially defeated a top human player under tournament conditions. Since then, computers have only extended their supremacy at the royal game. No human has managed to beat a computer opponent in a major chess match since 2005.
Is this 2,000 year old mechanism the First Computer?
The Antikythera Mechanism is one of the most astounding archeological finds in history. Discovered within the ruins of an ancient Greco-Roman shipwreck ...
First Ice Cream recipe was written down by Thomas Jefferson
Before TV dramas or social media, early America buzzed over one influential tastemaker renowned for his continental flair. Long before Michelin stars or the Food Network made chefs famous, Thomas Jefferson won widespread fame for his epicurean adventures.