Rice paddy farming is believed to have originated in China, where the earliest known paddy field dates back more than 9,400 years, according to a new study. Wet rice farming, including the creation of rice paddies, was invented in China about 5000 BCE, with the earliest evidence to date at…
George Bernard DantzigGeorge Bernard DantzigDantzig is known for his development of the simplex algorithm, an algorithm for solving linear programming problems, and for his other work with linear programming. In statistics, Dantzig solved two open problems in statistical theory, which he had mistaken for homework after arriving late to a…
Traditional western square dancing was promoted beginning in the 1930s by Lloyd Shaw, who solicited definitions from callers across the country in order to preserve that dance form and make it available to other teachers. Playford (England) is the traditional square dance that was taught by famous music theory publisher…
The U-Boat was a defining feature of WW1 naval combat. In 1850, more than six decades before the outbreak of that terrible conflict, a German ex-cavalryman and engineer named Wilhelm Bauer invented the first submarine. When was the first submarine invented? Drebbel: 1620-1624 British mathematician William Bourne made some of…
Anthropometry, designed by Alphonse Bertillon, began in 1890 and lasted approximately 20 years before being replaced by fingerprint identification. Alphonse’s father, Louis Bertillon, a famous French physician and anthropologist, largely influenced Alfonse’s knowledge and interest in the human skeletal system. Although the process of obtaining human measurements had originated in…
In 1943 Cousteau and French engineer Émile Gagnan developed the first fully automatic compressed-air Aqua-Lung (scuba apparatus), which allowed divers to swim freely underwater for extended periods of time. 312 BC Aqua Appia 272 BC Aqua Anio Vetus 144-140 BC Aqua Marcia 127-126 BC Aqua Tepula 33 BC Aqua Julia…
Du Shi is credited with being the first to apply hydraulic power (i.e. a waterwheel) to operate bellows (air-blowing device) in metallurgy. His invention was used to operate piston-bellows of the blast furnace and then cupola furnace in order to forge cast iron, which had been known in China since…
Francesco Petrarca (known as Petrarch in English) has been identified as the first humanist, since Georg Voigt called Petrarch “the father of Humanism” in 1859 (see Voigt 1960 in Origins of Humanism). an interest in studying literature and art from antiquity an interest in the eloquent use of Latin and…
The click track was invented in the early 1930s just as the Golden Era of Hollywood began to take off. The invention of the click track is attributed to two people: Max Steiner (1888-1971), one of the three founders of film music and Carl W. Stalling (1891-1972), Warner Bros. house…
The Vandals crossed into Africa from Spain in 429 ce and occupied Sardinia about 456. The Roman general Marcellinus reoccupied the island in advance of an ambitious expedition against the Vandals organized by the Eastern Roman emperor Leo I and Western Roman emperor Anthemius. Spanish conquest of Sardinia. The Spanish…