Humans aren’t great at judging time. How long is five minutes? Did something happen 3 years ago or 10?
As we get older, we pretend that time and its trappings make sense to us, but honestly, we are just lying to ourselves. We would be shocked to learn just how skewed our internal chronology really is.
Here’s a simple one that will mess with you: Did you know that the life of Jesus is chronologically closer to the opening of the first Pizza Hut than to the time when the Egyptian pyramids were built? Weird.
Check out these other mind-blowing time conundrums that show how wrong we ALL are about our own sense of time!
1. The Fax machine was invented when the first wagon started on the Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a migratory trail here in the US that thousands of people traveled on in order to secure their own plot of land from the US government. The first wagons left in 1843, right around the time…the fax machine was invented? Yep!
The Electric Printing Telegraph was invented on May 27th, 1943 by Alexander Bain.
2. NASA was in space when plate tectonics were agreed on
NASA started exploring space at the turn of the 20th century, but the Gemini Missions signaled the real takeoff (pun intended).
The missions concluded in 1966, right around the time that two major papers solidifying plate tectonics were published in 1965 and 1967.
Soon after they were accepted widely in the scientific community.
3. Mammoths and the pyramids were around at the same time
Some of the oldest structures in the world, the Pyramids of Giza, were constructed around 2667 and 2648 BCE, nearly 5000 years ago.
What’s crazier is that mammoths existed as a small population on Wrangel Island, 90 miles off the coast of Siberia, up until 1650 BCE.
There were mammoths around when they built the pyramids!
4. The last public hanging in the UK could have been traveled to by tube
The UK had its last public hanging in 1868 when Michael Barrett was hanged in front of a two-thousand-person crowd outside of Newgate Prison.
Only three years before, the Barbican London Underground station was completed. A strange melding of modernity and antiquity, to be sure.
5. You could go to McDonalds as the first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz
McDonald’s was originally founded by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald (obviously) in 1940.
Only five days later, on May 20th, the first prisoners arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camps.
6. The Ottoman Empire was around when the Cubs won the World Series
Sorry, Cubs fans. We know it hurts.
The Ottoman Empire was around for quite a while. It dissolved after WWI in 1918, but not before the Cubs won the World Series back in 1908. T
he Cubs have a win that predates the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. It’s strange to say!
Luckily, they’ve managed to secure another more recently.
7. Nintendo was founded when Jack the Ripper was “doing his thing”
Nintendo was founded WAY back in 1889 and made special playing cards called hanafuda. It wasn’t a video game company yet (it was 1889 for goodness sake) but they would eventually turn into the giant that they are today.
Meanwhile, Jack the Ripper was murdering people in London in 1888, with some thinking he was still operating in 1889.
8. Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock when a Palace of Governers was already established in New Mexico
We normally think of the Pilgrims being some of the first to settle on New World soil, but they only arrived in 1620.
Spanish explorers had already arrived in the south and had a full settlement established by 1610!
9. Star Wars came out when France had their last execution by guillotine
The French are well-known for their affinity for guillotines. They had their last execution by guillotine in 1977 when they beheaded Hamida Djandoubi.
At the same time, people were getting ready to see Star Wars in theatres in America.
10. Swiss women got to vote the same year the US was driving cars around the moon
Women’s suffrage is, unfortunately, a new concept, relatively speaking. In Switzerland, women were first given the right to vote in 1971, 51 years after women were given the same right in the US.
On the topic of the US, astronauts were driving moon buggies around when women were taking to the polls in Switzerland for the very first time.
Now, Switzerland is an overall more politically progressive society than the US.
11. Microsoft was founded while Spain was under the control of a dictator
1975 marked the founding of the software giant Microsoft when Bill Gates and Paul Allen began working in their garage on new tech. Currently, Microsoft is one of the most valuable companies in the entire world.
At the same time in 1975, Spain was still a fascist country led by the dictator Fransisco Franco.
12. The Battle of Little Bighorn was fought while the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction
The Battle of Little Bighorn is rather infamous – it’s the battle in which General Custer and his men charged against three separate Native American tribes, led by Crazy Horse, in the Montana Territory in 1876.
At that same time, the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction as the first steel-wire suspension bridge in history in New York.
13. Orville Wright was alive when the first atomic bombs were dropped
Orville and Wilbur Wright were the inventors of the airplane and took their Kitty Hawk flight in 1903. 40 years later airpower was a key instrument in warfare.
While Wilbur Wright died in 1912 from fever, his brother, Orville, lived to see his invention be used as a weapon of war. He explained how he felt about it in an interview:
“No, I don’t have any regrets about my part in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused.”
14. Ecstasy and the Titanic share a birth year
The drug commonly known as ecstasy (MDMA, 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine) was first invented in Germany as a potential appetite suppressant in 1912.
The same year the Titanic took its maiden voyage, only to be foiled by a pesky iceberg that cut things short.
15. Oxford University predates the Aztec Empire
Oxford University was a hub for learning as far back as 1096 and formal teaching began in 1167 when the King banned any English students from going to the University of Paris.
The Aztec Empire was established in 1428 and ruled the Valley of Mexico until 1521 when Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes conquered them (mostly through slaughter and disease). In our minds, we usually imagine the Aztecs as FAR more ancient than anything in England!
Understanding historical events that happened simultaneously is a real head-trip. We usually section off portions of history and their associated events in our minds with little mental boxes and rarely understand the strings that actually connect them!
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