32. The Romans named the Red Planet after their god of war.
The telescope was not invented until more than a millennium after the fall of Rome. However, Roman astronomers still gazed up at the night sky and saw several distinct celestial bodies. They noticed that some of these bodies moved much more rapidly than stars and named them “planets.” All of the planets in our solar system, except for the Earth, are named after Roman gods. The Romans called the red planet Mars, thinking that it bore a resemblance to their war god. Why the connection? Well, war inevitably leads to a lot of blood, and blood is, well, red.