DK - WOW! The Visual Encyclopedia of Everything

295

The United States bought

Alaska

from Russia in

1867

for

$7.2 million.

Japan’s

monarchy

dates from 660 bce to

the present day, during

which time there have

been 125

emperors.

Of the

seven wonders

of the ancient world,

only the Great

Pyramid of Giza

still exists.

The earliest written constitution still in use in

a republic today is that of the tiny European

state San Marino. It dates back to 1600.

In the first factories and

mines of the Industrial

Revolution in Britain,

children as young

as five worked

16-hour shifts.

The Hundred

Years’ War between

France and England

actually lasted 116

years, from 1337 to 1453.

In 1783, a

sheep, a duck,

and a rooster

became the first

aircraft passengers

when they flew in

the Montgolfier

brothers' hot-air

balloon.

The Great Plague of London was

ended in 1666 by the Great Fire

of London, which burned

down the affected areas.

Ghamdan Palace in

Sana’a, Yemen, built

in the 3 rd century ce,

may be the world’s

first ever castle.

The Great Wall of

China, built to protect

China’s northern border,

is 6,500 km (4,000 miles) long.

The Statue of Liberty was a present

given by France to the USA in 1877

to mark the 100

th

anniversary

of the American Declaration

of Independence.

In medieval

European courts,

animals could be

tried for crimes.

A swarm of locusts

were once convicted,

in their absence, of

illegally eating crops.

The Viking law court

was called the Thing.

Between 1848 and 1855, about 300,000

people went to California, USA, to find

their fortunes in the Gold Rush.

The longest reigning

monarch is currently

Elizabeth II of United

Kingdom, who came

to the throne in 1952.

One century ago, Ethiopia was

the only country in Africa that

was not ruled by a European

power. All African countries are

now independent from Europe.

Between 1793–94, at least 17,000

people were executed in the nine-month-

long "Reign of Terror" during the

French Revolution.

The Black Death, an outbreak

of the bubonic plague,

reached Sicily in southern

Europe in 1347. Less than

three years later it had

spread to the Arctic Circle,

3,500 km (2,200 miles)

to the north.

The toilets of

16th-century English

homes were cleaned by a

worker called a gong farmer.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW WE USED TO LIVE, SEE PAGES 226–251

In the year 1900,

one quarter of the

population of the world

lived under British rule.

Approximately 13 million

soldiers from Russia were killed in

World War II, more than all other

countries put together. More than

1 million died in the siege of Stalingrad alone.

King Richard II of England (1367–1400)

threw extravagant parties for as many

as 10,000 people at a time.

In the 13th century, Constantinople and

Baghdad were the largest cities in the world,

with about 1 million inhabitants each.

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