History Facts for Kids
Incredible facts from the past
The Colosseum in Rome, completed in 80 AD, could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. It had a retractable awning called the velarium to protect the crowd from sun and rain.
After 1492, plants from the Americas — including potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, maize, and chillies — spread to the rest of the world, transforming diets and agriculture on every continent.
The world's first steam-powered railway locomotive was built by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick and made its historic first run on 21 February 1804, pulling five wagons and 70 passengers.
Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled twice — first to the island of Elba in 1814, from which he escaped after just 10 months, and then finally to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
Athletes at the ancient Greek Olympic Games competed completely naked. The Greek word 'gymnasium' comes from the Greek word 'gymnos', meaning 'naked'.
Penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered by accident in 1928 when Alexander Fleming noticed that mould had killed bacteria in one of his petri dishes that he had carelessly left uncovered.
The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for just $7.2 million — less than two cents per acre. Many Americans mocked the deal at the time, calling it 'Seward's Folly'.
The first bicycle, invented by Baron Karl von Drais in 1817, had no pedals. Riders pushed themselves along with their feet on the ground — it was called the draisine or 'running machine'.
Joan of Arc led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War at just 17 years old. She was captured and burnt at the stake by the English in 1431, aged just 19.
Ancient China developed the world's first civil service examination system, where anyone — regardless of birth — could compete for government jobs by passing written tests in history, law, and Confucian classics.