What ridiculous history fact is your favorite?

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Oxford University Is older than the Aztec civilization.
- And, probably from the same Reddit thread, there were a pocket of woolly mammoths still doing woolly mammoth things when the pyramids were put up. In the same spirit the Sahara hadn't fully stopped being habitable (as it was during the late ice age) yet, and that had an impact on Egyptian history.
  The Near East really did get rolling pretty quickly once the warm period began, which is funny because there were areas that were arable all along. In a fair world we'd all be speaking an Australian language or something.
  
  I read about it once. I think it was up to medieval times where sahara had lots of green batches and oasis? Though thats in the range of natural climate change.
  Btw. most Alpine passes were unpassable from 900 to 1300, we had a mini ice age then.
  
  Nah, green Sahara ended pretty early in the bronze age. The old kingdom Egyptians were really just getting the tail end of it. It was definitely natural, I don't think that's in question; the (non-mini) ice age was simply ending, about on schedule. It would have been a much slower change than what's happening now.
  There were a few trees that managed to hang on in one area, though, with the last being "accidentally" run over by the colonial-era French.
- Harvard University is older than calculus.
  
  Oxford University is older than calculus.
  
  Oxford University is older than Harvard University.
  Edit: Which isn't really surprising, but I posted anyway for the sake of completeness. Oxford is so old it's not super clear when in the middle ages it started.

112 comments