ELECTRIC IRON PREDATED FIRST POWER STATION

When Henry W. Seely invented the first electric iron in 1882, he was a little bit ahead of his time. The country’s first power station didn’t start generating electricity until three months after the debut of Seely’s invention. And Seely did it again, just one year later, inventing a working, cordless electric iron in 1883.

Louis XIV is often called the most powerful of France’s many kings. But most of that credit is due to a secret weapon: intelligence. Louis XIV employed a mathematician, Antoine Rossignol, who was skilled in the art of cryptography and could read the secret messages of all the world’s kings and nobles.

When the Egyptian pharaohs’ bodies were mummified, one of the spices used in the process was cinnamon.

Although 55 United States’ athletes took part in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, most of them did not know they were competing in the Olympics until they won. That’s because the proper name of the event only appeared on the medals. Even the official program identified the “world’s amateur track and field championships” as part of the Paris Exposition.

The Zodiac is the name given to the path that the Sun appears to travel through the heavens.