Timeline Illusions
History doesn't always flow as we imagine. Think you've got a handle on chronology? Think again. Some historical events occurred surprisingly close together, while others stretched across vast timeframes. These temporal oddities might surprise you.
29 Years: First Video Game To Virtual Reality
Interactive electronic entertainment really took off in the second half of the 20th century. Back in 1958, physicist William Higinbotham crafted what many consider the first video game which was called "Tennis for Two" at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Wikimedia Commons
29 Years: First Video Game To Virtual Reality (Cont.)
Players used simple controllers connected to an analog computer to play tennis on an oscilloscope screen. Fast forward just 29 years to 1987, and computer scientist Jaron Lanier came up with the term "virtual reality" while showing off VPL Research's headset and gloves of the digital world.
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Wikimedia Commons
Brooklyn Bridge Preceded Tower Bridge
Did you know London's Tower Bridge was actually built in response to Brooklyn's architectural achievement? Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge began in 1870 and was completed in 1883, becoming the world's first steel-wire suspension bridge. It spanned about 6,000 feet across the East River, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Arnoldius, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Brooklyn Bridge Preceded Tower Bridge (Cont.)
Three years after its completion, London officials finally approved plans for their own Tower Bridge, which wouldn't open until 1894. German immigrant John Augustus Roebling designed the Brooklyn Bridge. After his death, his son, Washington Roebling, took over the construction work.
Anne Dirkse (www.annedirkse.com), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
19 Months: Pony Express Beginning To End
The legendary Pony Express, despite its outsized place in American folklore, operated for less than two years. The first rider departed St. Joseph, Missouri, on April 3, 1860, beginning a relay system that delivered mail to Sacramento, California. This was done in only 10 days.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
19 Months: Pony Express Beginning To End (Cont.)
However, the final Pony Express delivery arrived at its destination in November 1861. This marked 19 months of operation. The short-lived service struggled financially when Congress delayed offering an adequate contract. The rapid deployment of telegraph lines across the western US rendered the horseback mail service obsolete.
Federal Highway Administration, Wikimedia Commons
Can Openers: 60 Years After Canned Food
The technology to preserve food arrived long before the convenient way to access it. In 1795, Bonaparte sponsored a competition seeking better methods to feed his armies during campaigns. Nicolas Appert claimed the prize in 1810 with his method of preserving food in glass jars sealed with wax.
Jpbarbier Jean-Paul Barbier, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Can Openers: 60 Years After Canned Food (Cont.)
Within months, Philippe de Girard adapted the technique for tin cans. Yet here's the puzzling part: despite canned food becoming commercially available, no one invented a practical can opener until 1858, when American Ezra Warner finally patented one.
Jaroslaw Goralczyk, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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65 Years: First Camera To First Movie Camera
Visual recording technology progressed from static images to moving pictures in 65 years. The earliest permanent photographs were created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in France around 1825 using a process called heliography. This process required exposures that lasted eight hours.
65 Years: First Camera To First Movie Camera (Cont.)
By the 1880s, George Eastman had developed the first Kodak camera and had made photography accessible to ordinary people. Thomas Edison and William Dickson built upon this foundation to develop the Kinetograph in 1890, the first practical motion picture camera.
Bronger, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
65 Years: First Camera To First Movie Camera (Cont.)
Edison then patented the device in 1897, which enabled the capture of sequential images. This formed the illusion of movement when played back. Within a single lifetime, people went from marveling at the first fixed images to watching moving pictures in theaters.
Louis Bachrach, Bachrach Studios, Michel Vuijlsteke, Wikimedia Commons
Shakespeare Witnessed Jamestown Settlement
Few realize that when English colonists established Jamestown in 1607, the world's greatest playwright still created masterpieces in London. William Shakespeare, born in April 1564, was 43 years old and at the height of his creative powers when the first permanent English settlement in North America was founded.
BatyrAshirbayev98, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Shakespeare Witnessed Jamestown Settlement (Cont.)
The Bard had already written Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre audiences were likely discussing news of these colonial adventures between performances. Some scholars believe Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest (c. 1610-1611), was partly inspired by accounts of a 1609 Jamestown-bound shipwreck.
Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Wright Saw Sound Barrier Broken
The aviation pioneer who first achieved powered flight lived to witness jets breaking the sound barrier. Orville Wright, who, with his brother Wilbur, made history at Kitty Hawk in 1903, experienced aviation's most dramatic evolution firsthand. Their first flight traveled about 120 feet at roughly 30 mph.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Wright Saw Sound Barrier Broken (Cont.)
Yet on October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager piloted the Bell X-1 past Mach 1—and Orville Wright was still alive to read about it in the newspapers. When Orville passed away on January 30, 1948, commercial airliners routinely crossed continents at 300+ mph while jets approached supersonic speeds.
U.S. Air Force photo, Wikimedia Commons
30 Years: Harvard's Founding To Calculus Invention
America's oldest university predated the mathematical foundation of modern science and engineering. Harvard College was established in 1636 by a resolution of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It became the first institution of higher learning in colonial America.
Harvard University Archives, Wikimedia Commons
30 Years: Harvard's Founding To Calculus Invention (Cont.)
Remarkably, calculus—the branch of mathematics that enables most modern scientific calculations, wouldn't be developed for another three decades. Isaac Newton first formulated calculus principles in the 1660s, with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developing similar methods in the 1670s (though the mathematics originated in earlier work from India).
Christoph Bernhard Francke, Wikimedia Commons
Nintendo Founded: Pre-40 States America
Nintendo began as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan, in September 1889, when there were only 38 states in the American Union. Colorado had most recently joined in 1876, and North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington wouldn't join until November of that same year.
xanday, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Nintendo Founded: Pre-40 States America (Cont.)
Founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi, Nintendo initially produced handmade hanafuda cards (traditional Japanese playing cards) for various games. They expanded to Western-style playing cards in 1907 but wouldn't venture into electronics until the 1960s. All of this happened while America turned into a global superpower.
fuzzcat, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Betty White Older Than Sliced Bread
"The best thing since sliced bread" takes on new meaning when you realize Betty White predated this everyday convenience. The beloved Golden Girls actress was born on January 17, 1922, a full six years before pre-sliced bread first appeared on store shelves in 1928.
Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Betty White Older Than Sliced Bread (Cont.)
Rohwedder, an Iowa jeweler, began working on a bread-slicing machine in 1912, facing numerous challenges. Ultimately, the first commercial sliced loaf, produced on Rohwedder's machine, was sold on July 7, 1928, by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri under the name “Kleen Maid Sliced Bread”.
Americasroof, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Guillotines Active During Star Wars Release
France's notorious decapitation device remained the country's official method of execution until 1981. This meant the guillotine was still in active use when Star Wars premiered in theaters in 1977. The last person executed by guillotine in France was Hamida Djandoubi on September 10, 1977.
Johann Jaritz, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Guillotines Active During Star Wars Release (Cont.)
This was just months after audiences worldwide were introduced to lightsabers, the Death Star, and Darth Vader. While French citizens were debating capital punishment methods dating back to the 1789 revolution, moviegoers were watching space battles in galaxies far away.
Sam Howzit, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Living Sharks Older Than Henry VIII's Reign
Apparently, some Greenland sharks swimming in today's oceans may have been alive before Henry VIII became king of England in 1509. A 2016 radiocarbon dating study of eye tissue from these long-lived creatures revealed specimens as old as 392 years (plus or minus 120 years).
Lucas Horenbout, Wikimedia Commons
Living Sharks Older Than Henry VIII's Reign (Cont.)
The oldest female was potentially born around 1504. These ancient predators grow exceptionally slowly in frigid Arctic waters, less than 1 cm per year. Hence, they can be viewed as living organisms that have witnessed the entire span of modern history.
Hemming1952, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Mammoths Coexisted With Pyramid Builders
Woolly mammoths were hanging on at Siberia's Wrangel Island while the ancient Egyptians were busy building the pyramids at Giza. Most mammoths elsewhere disappeared around 10,000 years ago with the last Ice Age, but these island-dwelling ones stuck around until about 1650 BCE.
Flying Puffin, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Mammoths Coexisted With Pyramid Builders (Cont.)
This is calculated to be approximately 900 years after the Great Pyramid was finished. Fossils found on the island show that these last mammoths were a lot smaller than their ancestors because of something called island dwarfism. However, they still had those iconic curved tusks and shaggy fur.
Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cleopatra: Closer To iPhones Than Pyramids
Interestingly, Egypt's famous queen Cleopatra lived closer in time to today's iPhone than to the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Born around 69 BCE and dying in 30 BCE, Cleopatra ruled approximately 2,500 years after the Great Pyramid's completion (circa 2560 BCE).
John William Waterhouse, Wikimedia Commons
Cleopatra: Closer To iPhones Than Pyramids (Cont.)
The iPhone was introduced in 2007. This means Cleopatra viewed the pyramids as ancient monuments—already 2,500 years old during her lifetime, much as we might view Roman ruins today. The mathematical reality of this timeline challenges our tendency to mentally compress ancient history.
Carl Berkeley from Riverside California, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Prince's "1999": 17 Years Before And After
In a perfectly symmetrical twist of fate, Prince released his breakthrough hit "1999" exactly 17 years before the year 1999 arrived. That’s not it. He then passed away 17 years after 1999 passed. The song and album were released in 1982 as Prince's fifth studio album.
Allen Beaulieu; Warner Bros. Records., Wikimedia Commons
Prince's "1999": 17 Years Before And After (Cont.)
The title track went on to become an anthem for millennium anxiety and celebration. Prince temporarily retired the song from his live performances at the end of 1999, stating there was no need to play it in the 2000s. The musical genius left the Earth in April 2016.
Prince, Prince and The Revolution - 1999 (Live in Syracuse, NY, 3/30/85) by Prince
Coca-Cola: Just 31 Years Younger Than Italy
Everyone’s favorite, world-famous soft drink was created surprisingly close to the establishment of modern Italy as we know it today. Coca-Cola was invented by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton in 1886 as a medicinal syrup. The unified Kingdom of Italy had been established in 1861.
Holy-DYVR, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Coca-Cola: Just 31 Years Younger Than Italy (Cont.)
The Italian peninsula had been divided into independent city-states and regions for centuries. It then underwent unification between 1859 and 1870, with Rome finally becoming the capital in 1870. By the time Coca-Cola was incorporated as a company in 1892, Italy was still working through regional integration.
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC, Wikimedia Commons
Renaissance Masters Never Met Their Teammates
Unlike their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle namesakes, who fought crime together, the Renaissance masters were named after never meeting. Donatello, born in 1386, died in 1466. This was nearly 20 years before Raphael was born in 1483 and about 10 years before Michelangelo's 1475 birth.
Renaissance Masters Never Met Their Teammates (Cont.)
As the eldest of these Renaissance artists, Donatello revolutionized sculpture with works like his bronze "David" but died before seeing the heights reached by the High Renaissance. Only Leonardo da Vinci (1452) lived during Donatello's lifetime and during Leonardo's childhood years before Donatello passed away in 1466.
I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Dali Outlived Olsen Twins' Birth
Surrealist painter Salvador Dali, known for his melting clocks and quirky personality, lived long enough to see the rise of pop culture icons. These include Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Born in 1904, he passed away in January 1989, while the Olsen twins were born in June 1986.
Roger Higgins, World Telegram staff photographer, Wikimedia Commons
Dali Outlived Olsen Twins' Birth (Cont.)
That means Dali was around for a couple of years after the future stars of Full House came into the world. The twins kicked off their acting careers before they even turned one. When Dali was still living, they made their sitcom debut in 1987.
Full house Michelle clips(Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley) by ZAYN
T. Rex: Closer To Humans Than Stegosaurus
The fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex lived closer in time to modern humans than to the Stegosaurus. This challenges our tendency to lump all dinosaurs together mentally. Stegosaurus walked the earth during the Late Jurassic period (155-145 million years ago), while T. rex appeared much later during the Late Cretaceous.
Charles Robert Knight, Wikimedia Commons
T. Rex: Closer To Humans Than Stegosaurus (Cont.)
If we compressed Earth's entire history into a single year, dinosaurs would only appear in December. Within that timeline, Stegosaurus and T. rex would still be separated by about two weeks in the same month, demonstrating the vast temporal distance between these dinosaur species.
Heinrich Harder (1858-1935), Wikimedia Commons
Landline To Mobile Under A Century
Telephone technology evolved from room-sized equipment to handheld devices in less than a century. Alexander Graham Bell generated the first telephone call in March 1876, famously saying to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you”. His device required wired connections and bulky equipment.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Landline To Mobile Under A Century (Cont.)
Then, 97 years later, on April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper developed the first call on a handheld cellular phone to his rival at Bell Labs, Joel Engel. Cooper later recalled, “There was silence at the other end of the line”.
GS200, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Landline To Mobile Under A Century (Cont.)
His competitor had realized that Motorola had won the race to true mobility. That first mobile phone weighed 2.4 pounds and offered only 30 minutes of talk time. For additional perspective, the first iPhone arrived about 34 years after Cooper's call.
Rico Shen, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
148 Years: 13th Amendment Submission To Final Ratification
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution took a century and a half to be officially ratified by all states. Congress approved the amendment on January 31, 1865, and it became law in December 1865. This happened after Georgia's ratification provided the three-fourths majority of states.
Nationalbdgf Archives of the Unites States, Wikimedia Commons
148 Years: 13th Amendment Submission To Final Ratification (Cont.)
However, Mississippi, one of the former Confederate states, rejected the amendment in 1865 and didn't pass a resolution to ratify it until 1995. Even then, due to an administrative oversight, the ratification wasn't officially recognized by the federal government until 2013.
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