Game
Where does Korfball come from?
Korfball was created in 1902 by Amsterdam teacher Nico Broekhuysen, who adapted ringboll, a Swedish game he'd seen in Nääs. Each team mixes four women and four men.
More Games & sports
Game
Judo
📍 Tokyo, Japan
Judo was created in Tokyo in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō, who reshaped older jujutsu styles around safe free sparring; strikes and weapons survive only in set forms. Its name means “gentle way”.
Game
Squash
📍 Harrow (London), England
Squash began around 1830 at Harrow School in London, when pupils noticed that a punctured ball, which “squashed” against the wall, made the old game of rackets far more varied.
Game
Cribbage
📍 England
Cribbage grew out of noddy, an old English card game, and the poet Sir John Suckling is credited with inventing it in the early 1600s. Points are scored by moving pegs along a wooden board full of holes.
More from Europe
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Nature
Merino sheep
📍 Iberian Peninsula
Merino sheep were developed in medieval Spain, which guarded the fine-wool breed as a monopoly: smuggling one out could mean death. Merinos only reached Australia in 1797, via South Africa.
Invention
Hot-air balloon
📍 Annonay, France
Paper-makers Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier first flew their hot-air balloon publicly in their hometown of Annonay, France, in June 1783. Chinese sky lanterns came first, but theirs carried the first passengers: a sheep, a duck and a rooster.
Word
Jeans (the word)
📍 Genoa, Italy
Jeans goes back to Genoa (Gênes in French): English merchants called a hard-wearing fustian cloth from the Italian port 'Gene fustian', later just 'jean', and were importing it in bulk by the 1500s.