Domesticated Animals

Dates of first domestication:

  • Sheep, goat, pig: 8,000 B.C.
  • Cow: 6,000 B.C.
  • Horse: 4,000 B.C.
  • Donkey, water buffalo, honeybee: 4,000 B.C.
  • Chicken, cat, llama: 3,500 B.C.
  • Silkworm: 3,000 B.C.
  • Camel: 2,500 B.C.

Dogs, by far, are man’s best friend. Some estimates put them with us as early as 150,000 B.C. It’s thought that scavenging wolves grew less fearful of humans, and we found they could help with hunting and warn us of approaching enemies. “To his dog, every man is Napoleon,” wrote Aldous Huxley. “Hence the constant popularity of dogs.”

| Science & Math · Society

Shortest-Reigning Popes

Shortest-reigning popes:

  • Urban VII (elected in 1590): 13 days
  • Boniface VI (896): 16 days
  • Celestine IV (1241): 17 days
  • Sisinnius (708): 21 days
  • Theodore II (897): 21 days
  • Marcellus II (1555): 22 days
  • Damasus II (1048): 24 days
  • Pius III (1503): 27 days
  • Leo XI (1605): 27 days
  • Benedict V (964): 33 days

1978 is called the “year of three popes”: Pope Paul VI was succeeded by John Paul I, who lived only 33 days. John Paul II succeeded him.

| History · Religion

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon was a mysterious figure who haunted Mattoon, Ill., in the summer of 1944.

Typically, homeowners would report awakening to a sweet odor, then feeling nausea, dizziness, headaches, breathing difficulty, or a feeling of paralysis. Some saw a tall figure dressed in black fleeing their property after the attack.

Police and citizens patrolled the streets, and the newspapers printed several sensational accounts, but the police never found a suspect. The attacks stopped after Sept. 13, as mysteriously as they had begun.

| Crime · Oddities