History
A:
As of May 2014, 43 men have become president of the United States. Barack Obama is regarded as the 44th president, however, because Grover Cleveland served two nonsuccessive terms.
-
-
Q: What was the role of women in ancient China?
A: Women in ancient China lived oppressed lives, and their roles centered around caring for their husbands, cleaning, cooking and looking after their kids. The women of ancient China were expected to bear many children, and most of them felt pressure from their husbands to bear a son despite its being beyond their control. -
Q: Who won the Opium War between China and Great Britain?
A: Great Britain won the Opium War against China. Their victory created foreign spheres of influence in China, allowed Great Britain to take possession of Hong Kong, opened China to European influence and created a drug epidemic in southeastern Asia. -
Q: Why was the wheel so important to Mesopotamia?
A: The wheel allowed Mesopotamians to create a number of novel transportation methods. It was also used in a variety of mechanical devices. Creating wheels may have also spawned new methods of making items that need precision. -
Q: What did Alexander the Great do?
A: Alexander the Great created the largest political empire in the ancient world. He is considered a great military leader and was an inspiration to future leaders such as Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. -
Q: How long did it take to get across the Atlantic in the 1700s?
A: Since ships in the 1700s relied on sails to propel them, the length of the voyage greatly depended on the wind. An immigrant who made the journey in 1750 reported that it could take between eight and 12 weeks, while another who arrived in 1724 reported that the journey took six weeks and three days. The average journey was about seven weeks. -
Q: What is the cradle of civilization?
A: Scholars traditionally regard Mesopotamia, an ancient area surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that is now parts of modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Kuwait, as the cradle of civilization. The area is also know as the Fertile Crescent. - See More Ancient History Questions
-
-
-
Q: When was underwear invented?
A: The first traditional version of pull-on underwear is believed to have been invented in the 13th century. Before that, loincloths had been found on 7,000-year-old remains of humans, but only became important in the 13th century. -
Q: When was the compass invented?
A: Evidence suggests that the magnetic compass was invented in China between 221 and 206 B.C. The earliest compasses were not used for navigation, but for fortune-telling. Chinese compasses became navigational orienteering devices between 1040 and 1044 A.D. and were used as maritime navigational devices by 1117 A.D. -
Q: Who invented the fluorescent lamp?
A: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, engineer and inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt created the first usable fluorescent lamp in the early 1900s. While earlier inventors and researchers experimented with fluorescence, Hewitt's design led to the first commercially successful form of fluorescent lighting. -
Q: Who invented the first glider?
A: Sir George Cayley, the father of aerodynamics, invented the first glider. According to About.com, the very first model glider was smaller, controlled by the body and flown by an unknown boy. Over the next 50 years, Cayley made many improvements in size, shape and design to his gliders. -
Q: What are some facts about the telephone?
A: Alexander Graham Bell's telephone was the first of its kind to receive a patent in the United States and gain widespread commercial success. Bell was interested in sound on a conceptual level and used an observation about sound echoing from one piano to another to develop the technology that made telephone calls possible. -
Q: Who invented the first drum?
A: While the inventor of the first drum is unknown, drums were first played around 6,000 B.C. in Mesopotamia by the ancient Babylonians and Sumerians. Drums may have been used prior to this by pre-civilized humans, but there is no direct evidence. - See More Inventions Questions
-
-
-
Q: What was the longest ruling Chinese dynasty?
A: The Zhou Dynasty, also spelled "Chou," was the longest dynasty in the history of China. Though exact dates are unknown, scholars and archaeologists place the Zhou Dynasty reign from about 1046 B.C. to 256 B.C. -
Q: What were the negative effects of the Crusades?
A: Negative effects of the Crusades included the repeated defeats of the Christian armies, the slaughter of innocents and the looting of Constantinople. The destruction of Constantinople severed any hope of mending the East-West schism in Christianity, and this event left the Byzantine Empire vulnerable to the Ottoman Empire. -
Q: What king believed he was made of glass?
A: King Charles VI of France was prone to bouts of insanity where, among other things, he didn’t recognize his family or thought he was made of glass. Modern doctors think he may have suffered from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. -
Q: What was the job of a medieval knight?
A: Medieval knights were the professional warrior class of Europe, responsible for defending their feudal lord's territory from rival lords and keeping the local serfdom in line with the lord's rule. Knights were frequently members of the noble class, with the title inherited through the father, but it was also a title granted as a reward for chivalrous deeds. In the late medieval period, noble and warrior classes became more static. -
Q: Who lived in castles in the Middle Ages?
A: The primary residents of European castles during the Middle Ages were the lord and lady of the realm. These might be royalty or simply the liege lords of the district where the castle was built. -
Q: What years were the Middle Ages?
A: The Middle Ages began in the year 476 A.D. and ended around 1300 with the beginning of the Renaissance. The Middle Ages, also called the Medieval Period, began just after the fall of Rome and it dominated the European continent through the early 14th century. The Middle Ages filled a time period between the ending of a great reign and the beginning of a new era characterized by revitalization and cultural growth. - See More Middle Ages Questions
-
-
-
Q: How long has the Internet been around?
A: Generally speaking, the DARPA research project known as ARPANET has been defined as the "beginning" of the Internet, as it was the first instance of resources shared over a wide area network. It first came to life in Sept. 1969, when the IMP server at UCLA came online. -
Q: What was the cause of the Nigerian civil war?
A: The attempted secession of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria was the cause of the Nigerian Civil War. Another name for this conflict is the Biafran War because those provinces named themselves the Republic of Biafra. -
Q: When did South Africa become independent?
A: South Africa became independent from Great Britain on December 11, 1931, but the British monarch remained head of state. On May 31, 1961, the country became a republic, severing all formal ties with Great Britain. -
Q: How many times have astronauts been to the moon?
A: Astronauts have landed on the moon six times. In addition to the moon landings, NASA has sent astronauts on missions to flyby or orbit the moon three times. -
Q: What was the IQ of Albert Einstein?
A: Albert Einstein had an IQ of 160. This is the same IQ level as Stephen Hawking. Einstein was born in Germany on March 14, 1879. -
Q: How many years was Nelson Mandela imprisoned?
A: Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of which were spent at the infamously cruel Robben Island Prison in South Africa, where he was held from 1964 - 1982. Mandela was released from imprisonment in 1990 despite having initially been handed a life sentence. At the time of his imprisonment, South Africa was ruled by the white supremacist system of apartheid, in which native black Africans were officially considered inferior in every way to colonial European citizens, also known as Afrikaners. Mandela was an anti-apartheid revolutionary who eventually became the first president of South Africa, and he was initially imprisoned on charges of incitement before being charged with conspiracy to overthrow the state in what is known as the Rivonia Trial. - See More Modern History Questions
-
