Fun History

The Dog Who Went to Space

• In 1957, a small dog called Laika became the first living creature to travel into space.
• She rode in a spacecraft called Sputnik 2, sent by the Soviet Union.
• Laika was a stray dog from the streets of Moscow. She was chosen because she was calm and brave.
• Her journey helped scientists learn what it was like in space. Today, a monument of Laika stands in Moscow to remember her.

The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower — Twice!

• A man called Victor Lustig was a famous trickster in the 1920s.
• He pretended to be a government official and convinced people that the Eiffel Tower was going to be sold for scrap metal.
• He collected money from people who believed him and then disappeared.
• He managed to do this trick more than once before he was finally caught!

The Girl Who Wrote About Life in Hiding

• During the Second World War, a girl named Anne Frank and her family had to hide in a secret part of a building in Amsterdam.
• Anne wrote a diary about her daily life, her thoughts and her hopes.
• After the war, her diary was found and published. It has been read by millions of people around the world.
• Anne's diary helps us understand what it was like to live in such a difficult time.

The Emperor Who Made His Horse a Consul

• The Roman Emperor Caligula is said to have loved his horse, Incitatus, very much.
• According to old stories, he gave his horse a marble stable, jewellery and even a house.
• He reportedly planned to make his horse a consul — one of the most important jobs in Rome.
• Whether the story is completely true or not, it is one of the strangest tales from ancient Rome!

The Signal That Saved Lives

• In 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink.
• A wireless operator on the ship sent out distress signals using a radio.
• A nearby ship called the Carpathia heard the signals and rushed to help.
• They rescued over 700 people from the freezing water. The radio signals saved many lives that night.

The Woman Who Discovered the First Dinosaur Bones

• In the early 1800s, a girl called Mary Anning searched for fossils on the beaches of Lyme Regis.
• When she was just 12, she found the skeleton of a sea creature that no one had ever seen before.
• Scientists came from far away to see her finds.
• Mary became one of the most important fossil hunters in history, even though she was not always given credit for her work during her lifetime.

Ancient Egypt

1. c. 3100 BC — Upper and Lower Egypt are joined into one kingdom.
2. c. 2560 BC — The Great Pyramid of Giza is built.
3. c. 1332 BC — Tutankhamun becomes pharaoh as a young boy.
4. c. 1279 BC — Ramses II begins his long rule as pharaoh.
5. 332 BC — Alexander the Great arrives in Egypt.
6. 30 BC — Egypt becomes part of the Roman Empire.

The Romans in Britain

1. AD 43 — The Romans invade Britain under Emperor Claudius.
2. AD 60 — Boudica leads a uprising against the Romans.
3. AD 122 — Emperor Hadrian orders a wall to be built in the north.
4. AD 410 — The Romans leave Britain to defend Rome.

Tudor England

1. 1485 — Henry VII wins the Battle of Bosworth and becomes king.
2. 1509 — Henry VIII becomes king of England.
3. 1534 — Henry VIII breaks from the Pope and starts the Church of England.
4. 1558 — Elizabeth I becomes queen.
5. 1588 — The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English fleet.
6. 1603 — Elizabeth I dies and the Tudor period ends.

Transport Through Time

1. 1769 — The first steam-powered road vehicle is built.
2. 1825 — The first public railway opens in England.
3. 1903 — The Wright brothers make the first powered flight.
4. 1908 — The first affordable car, the Model T, goes on sale.
5. 1969 — The first people walk on the Moon.

• The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only ancient wonder still standing today. — There were Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Great Pyramid is the only one that has survived. It was built about 4,500 years ago and is made of over 2 million giant stone blocks.
• The Romans built roads that are still used today. — The Romans built about 80,000 kilometres of roads across their empire. They were so well made that many modern roads in Britain still follow the same routes.
• King Henry VIII had six wives. — Henry VIII became king of England in 1509. He is famous for having six wives. He wanted a son to be king after him, which led to big changes in England.
• The first Olympic Games were held in ancient Greece in 776 BC. — The ancient Olympics were held every four years in a place called Olympia. They were a festival to honour the god Zeus. Only men were allowed to take part.
• The Vikings sailed to North America about 500 years before Columbus. — Viking explorers, led by Leif Erikson, reached a place they called Vinland around the year 1000. This was in what is now Canada — long before Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492.
• The printing press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440. — Before the printing press, books were copied by hand, which took a very long time. Gutenberg's machine could print many pages quickly, making books cheaper and easier to get.
• The Aztecs built a city on a lake. — The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in the middle of a lake. They created floating gardens called chinampas to grow their food. It was one of the biggest cities in the world at the time.
• The ancient Egyptians used a picture writing system called hieroglyphs. — Hieroglyphs are small pictures that stand for sounds, words or ideas. They were carved on temple walls and written on a paper-like material called papyrus.
• Queen Elizabeth I ruled England for 44 years. — Elizabeth I became queen in 1558 and never married. Her reign is often called a Golden Age because of all the art, music and exploration that happened during it.
• The first people to climb Mount Everest were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. — Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. Hillary, from New Zealand, and Norgay, from Nepal, reached the top on 29 May 1953.
• The Magna Carta was signed in 1215. — King John of England was forced to sign a document called the Magna Carta. It said that even kings had to follow rules. It is one of the most important documents in history.
• The Great Fire of London happened in 1666. — A fire started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. It burned for four days and destroyed most of the city, including St Paul's Cathedral. After the fire, London was rebuilt with brick and stone.
• The ancient Greeks invented the marathon. — A soldier named Pheidippides ran from a battlefield at Marathon to Athens to bring news of a victory. The modern marathon race is named after this famous run of about 42 kilometres.
• Mary Anning was a famous fossil hunter from Lyme Regis. — Mary Anning found amazing fossils on the beaches of Dorset in the early 1800s. She discovered the first complete Ichthyosaurus skeleton when she was just 12 years old.
• The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. — It is a long piece of cloth embroidered with pictures. It shows how William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel and defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.

Visit the interactive History page for a new fact every day and a quiz.