Women could not compete at Olympia, yet in 396 BC the Spartan princess Cynisca became an Olympic champion.

396 BC · 392 BC · apart: 4 years

In chariot racing the prize went to the owner of the horses, not the driver, and she won it twice.

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The event

• First Olympic Games776 BC · Olympia. The first recorded Olympic Games were held at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia; Coroebus of Elis won the stadion footrace. Held every four years, the Games gave the Greeks a common system for counting years.

4th century BC

More amazing facts

• 440 BC Herodotus wrote that in India gold was dug up by ants bigger than foxes.
• 400 BC The principle behind the camera was first described by the Chinese philosopher Mozi around 400 BC: light passing through a pinhole into a dark room paints an upside-down image.
• 400 BC · 399 BC The world's oldest pile carpet is a contemporary of Socrates.
• 399 BC Socrates' last words were about a rooster he owed.
• 356 BC Tradition holds that the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus burned on the very day Alexander the Great was born.
• 356 BC · 221 BC In 356 BC Alexander the Great was born, and the state of Qin began Shang Yang's reforms.

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