SomeFacts | People in History

People in History

Great slabs of stone, or sun-dried mud brick, covered with a layer of ...

They were conquered by soldiers from Spain, who arrived in America in ...

An important Aztec god-his real name was Quetzalcoatl. The Aztecs ...

Aztec cooks. They made a sweet, frothy chocolate drink from ground-up ...

The Aztecs were wandering hunters who arrived in Mexico around AD ...

Mayan and Aztec scribes. The Mayans invented the first writing in ...

An Inca holy place. Inca people believed that powerful spirits lived ...

The Inca ruler-a king who was worshipped and feared. The Inca people ...

Inca women. They made a special beer, called chicha, by chewing com ...

A courtyard next to the Great Temple in the Incas' capital city of ...

Because they could survive in the Incas' mountain homeland, over ...

On bundles of knotted string, called quipus. The pattern of knots ...

A people who lived high in the Andes mountains of South America (part ...

The Vikings prayed to many different gods. Thor sent thunder and ...

Usually, the most powerful people in Viking society: kings, earls, ...

Yes, around AD 1000. A bold adventurer named Leif Ericsson sailed ...

Yes. They sailed for thousands of miles across the icy northern ...

All kinds of treasure. Churches were a favorite target for attack, ...

The countries we call Scandinavia today-Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. ...

Narrow, flexible strips of wood, fixed to a solid wooden backbone ...

Viking raiders first sailed south to attack the rest of Europe around ...

In AD 1206, all the separate Mongol tribes united under a warlike ...

At Samarra, in present-day Iraq. It is a part of a mosque (place of ...

From around AD 700 to 1200 the Muslim world included southem Spain, ...

Tribes of nomads who roamed over the vast plains of Central Asia, ...

The religious faith taught by the Prophet Muhammad. People who follow ...

A religious leader who lived in Arabia from AD 570 to 632. He taught ...

A series of wars fought between Christian and Muslim soldiers for ...

Muslim scientists who lived and worked in the Middle East, round ...

All round the Mediterranean, down the east coast of Africa, across ...

No one knows for certain, but it was probably between AD 600 and 800, ...

Japanese warriors, called samurai, who were powerful from around AD ...

From rich Chinese cities, across the Gobi desert, through the ...

Lady Murasaki, who lived at the elegant, cultured Japanese court ...

Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Chinese emperor, who united the country, ...

The emperors of Japan. The first Japanese emperor lived around 660 ...

How to make silk. For centuries, no one else knew how. Chinese women ...

From fine pottery and porcelain, produced by Chinese workers, which ...

The system of government in many parts of Europe between AD 1600 and ...

Ivan IV, who became Czar in 1533, when he was only three years old. ...

Monks and nuns spent a third of their lives at prayer. They promised ...

Some say the Middle Ages began around AD 500, others say around AD ...

When knights went into battle, their ladies ran the castle. They ...

Elizabeth I of England, who reigned from 1556 to 1603-at a time when ...

Louis XVI. Under his oppressive rule, the poor French rose up in ...

A knight's war horse was his most valuable possession. It cost him as ...

People from poor peasant families. Under medieval law, all land ...

Merchants from the north coast of Africa who traveled across the ...

For more than three centuries-from 1526 to 1858. But from around ...

The rulers of Vijayanagar, a kingdom in southern India. Their royal ...

To make their fortunes! They knew that Indian goods-especially cotton ...

Tippu Sultan, king of the southern Indian state of Mysore from 1785 ...

Guru Nanak, a religious teacher who lived in Northwest India from ...

Mughal emperor Shah Jehan (ruled 1627-1658). He was so sad when his ...

Artists and craftworkers living in the great rain forest kingdom of ...

Timbuktu, in present-day Mali, West Africa. The city was founded in ...

Dhows were ships built for rich merchants living in trading ports ...

This was a title of respect given to the Queen Mother in southern ...

Sir Francis Drake, an English sailor who grew rich and famous by ...

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. In 1492, he sailed westward ...

Muslim explorer Ibn Battuta, who was born in Tangiers, North Africa, ...

Dingoes are a type of dog. They were brought to Australia by Indian ...

The Maoris. They migrated from other Pacific Islands around AD 950 ...

By sailing and paddling big outrigger canoes. They steered by ...

No, they probably arrived there from Southeast Asia around 50,000 BC, ...

Because without them, deadly diseases carried in sewage could spread ...

On July 4, 1776, 13 English colonies (the land where most Europeans ...

European settlers in America attended this famous demonstration. In ...

First, they unwrapped the skin covering of the teepee, and bundled it ...

Yes, some of them. The people who lived in the Mississippi valley ...

The Pilgrims were a group of English families with strong religious ...

Spanish missionaries, who settled in present-day Florida and ...

The Hopewell Native American people, who lived on the banks of the ...

Beans, corn and squash (pumpkin)-three essential foodcrops that ...

Native American people who lived in the forests of Northwest America ...

By observing the plants, fishes and animals as they traveled-and by ...

A grueling march by Chinese communist soldiers through wild, rocky ...

Joseph Stalin, Russian communist leader who ruled from 1924-1953. He ...

Russian rebels, called Bolsheviks. During the Russian Revolution of ...

Millions of young men during World War I (1914-1918). Trenches were ...

They helped trade and industry grow, by carrying raw materials to ...

No. Many worked 16 hours a day in factories and down mines. Large ...

Horse-drawn railroad cars had been used to haul coal trucks in mines ...

They made some inventors and factory owners very rich. This angered ...

A time of dangerous tension from 1947 to 1989 between the USA and the ...

The USSR and the USA. Each tried to rival the other's achievements in ...

The Romans first became powerful around 200 BC. By AD 100, they ruled ...

In goatskin tents, while on the march, or in big barrack blocks ...

Yes - among the best in the world! They built roads, bridges, ...

Yes. They invented a system called the "hypocaust." Hot air, heated ...

By eating and drinking in taverns, gamblin going to the theater, and ...

Because Roman baths were great places to relax and meet your friends. ...

General Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians, who lived in North ...

For about 25 years. After that, they retired. They were given a lump ...

A uniform designed to keep them safe and warm: armor made of metal ...

Young men from all over the empire. Recruits had to be fit, tall, and ...

Sacrifices. Animals and birds were killed and burned on altars ...

Foreigners-people who did not speak Greek. The Greeks thought their ...

Because their design was copied from ancient Greek royal palaces, ...

Yes. There were more than 200 different sports festivals in Greece ...

Yes. In 490 BC and 479 BC, the Greeks defeated Persian invaders, on ...

No. Women were banned from the whole site during the games. But once ...

Silver and gold. They were decorated with symbols of the cities where ...

At first, running was the only sport. Later, boxing, wrestling, ...

No. The first coins were made in Lydia (part of present-day Turkey) ...

Small and simple, with flat roofs that served as extra rooms and ...

The first true pyramid was built around 2575 BC. Before then, people ...

Of hard, smooth limestone. Top quality stone was used for the outer ...

By manpower! Thousands of laborers worked in the hot sun to clear the ...

In Egypt, in North Africa. They stand on the west bank of the River ...

Scarabs (dung beetles) collected animal dung and rolled it into ...

Because Egypt got hardly any rain. But every year the Nile flooded ...

Rafts made from papyrus reed, flat-bottomed punts, big, heavy cargo ...

Everything they needed to survive-spears and nets for hunting; seeds, ...

About 6,000 years ago. The Sumerians (who lived in present-day Iraq) ...

A type of human who lived in Europe and Asia from around 200,000 to ...

In the Middle East. About 11,000 years ago, people there noticed that ...

From fossil remains. Fossils are made when chemicals in the soil soak ...

In cold countries, they wore leggings and tunics made from furs and ...

Jericho in Jordan (built around 10,000 years ago) and Çatal Hüyük in ...

Small, single-story, and made of sun-dried mud. They were built in ...

Yes, but not all the time. Nomad hunters built temporary shelters in ...

Groups of nomads who lived on the plains of Eastern Europe about ...