In 1897 the state of Indiana nearly passed a law on the value of pi. The House voted unanimously for a bill implying pi = 3.2; it was halted in the Senate because a mathematics professor happened to be in town.
More amazing facts
- 1896 There were no gold medals at the first modern Olympics in 1896.
- 1896 Kandinsky took up painting at 30.
- 1896 Five weeks after Ethiopia routed an Italian army at Adwa, the first modern Olympics opened in Athens.
- 1896 · 1935 Einstein never failed maths: he had mastered calculus before he was 15.
- 1897 · 1898 Heroin was once sold as a cough medicine.
- 1898 Two lions brought a British railway in Kenya to a halt.