Cleopatra lived closer in time to the moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The Black Plague killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1351, wiping out about 30% of the population.
Russia owned Alaska from 1744 until 1867, when it was sold to the United States for $7.2 million.
On Venus, a day lasts longer than its year! It takes 243 Earth days to rotate once but only 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun.
The Magna Carta, signed in 1215, was one of the first documents to limit the power of a king and lay the foundation for modern democracy.
The world’s first zoo was established in Egypt around 3500 BC.
Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still edible!
In ancient Egypt, it was common to have pets such as cats, monkeys, and even crocodiles, and they were often mummified after death.
The oldest known written language is Sumerian, which was used in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 3100 BCE.
The Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be a temporary structure for the 1889 World’s Fair and was nearly dismantled afterward.
Vikings did not wear horned helmets, despite popular depictions. This myth was invented by 19th-century artists.
During World War I, some soldiers used "carrier pigeons" to send messages across enemy lines, as they were incredibly reliable.
The first human flight in history wasn’t by airplane but by balloon—two Frenchmen, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes, flew in 1783.
The longest-lived empire was the Roman Empire, which lasted for over 1,000 years, from 27 BCE to 476 AD in the West (and the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453).