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40 Bits Of History That People Are Shocked To Learn Happened Simultaneously
Time and progress, as we know it, work in mysterious ways. While most of us enjoy technological achievements in celluloid form à la "Barbenheimer," one of the oldest indigenous tribes in the world, the Yanomami, are fighting for their survival in the Amazon.
But this is just a mere example of the different timelines that happen at the same time, yet in different parts of the world. As u/Cuish, who asked the AskReddit community "What other things oddly existed at the same time?", noted, the last execution by guillotine in France occurred in 1977, the same year that George Lucas' Star Wars forever altered the course of sci-fi movies. Scroll down below and explore these intriguing random facts for yourself.
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Orville Wright of the Wright brothers lived long enough to see Chuck Yaeger break the sound barrier and travel on an airliner that had a wingspan equal to the distance he covered in his first flight (37m)
There are many different explanations for the perception of time, including Einstein's wildly popular "Time is relative", one of the pillars of modern physics, theory which claims that the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.
However, when we observe the occurrence of various significant historical events seemingly close to one another, it can be mind-boggling, considering the odds of such proximity. Can you believe that Harvard didn't have calculus classes when they just opened their doors? Unbelievable!
Oxford University celebrated its 200th graduating class by the time the Aztec Empire started in Central America.
And Oxford is not even the oldest one. Middle Ages have so bad press...
The phenomenon of perceiving significant historical events clustered closely together, then, can trigger a cognitive dissonance that makes our minds reel. These events, though separated by vast stretches of time in reality, seem to converge in our minds, blurring the temporal boundaries. You know, reading about the events that happened in the span of 2,000 years whilst you've only been on Earth for only a few of Microsoft's Windows generations can be pretty mind-blowing.
My favourite that I've seen:
When Harvard opened, they didn't have calculus classes because *calculus hadn't been invented yet.*
The last mammoths lived at the time the pyramids were under construction.
You see that thing people building over there? That's gonna outlive us!
I always found it strange that Victorian England and the Wild West happened at the same time.
I actually have always associated these time periods together. I think there was enough literature from that time period (Around the World in 80 Days, A Study in Scarlett, etc.) that have portions both in England and in the US, that I always assumed they were concurrent periods.
Dmitri Shostakovich (major Russian composer who became huge in the 1920s) attended a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” in London, 1975. He actually loved it and watched it again the next day, claiming he wished he could’ve written something for a rock band.
I watched the first moon landing with a woman who’d been in Paris for Lindbergh’s first transcontinental flight landing.
Edit: wow this blew up! And my first award!! Trippy, thanks—and I owe it all to Mrs. B.
I remember talking to my great grandmother who had been around to see the first flight, first cars, radio, television, computers, moon landing, the atomic bomb, the space shuttle, two world wars, and equal rights movements all in her lifetime. Amazing amount of changes in such a relatively short period of time.
*Frozen* came out the same year Mississippi officially abolished slavery.
I don't think they still had slavery in 2013, but it's probably like one of those crazy old laws that still exist in some places due to them being overlooked. Like you can't eat cheese whilst riding backwards on a Buffalo through the town square with six dwarves on a Thursday. Or something. But I'm not an expert.
The last execution by guillotine occurred on September 10th, 1977.
The Atari 2600, the first successful home video game console, released the very next day. In a sense, the boundary separating the "era of guillotines" and the "era of video games" is less than 24 hours. It's basically a fine line with no overlap.
Women in Switzerland got right to vote in 1971 when India was already having a woman prime minister !
Nintendo was founded when Jack the Ripper was roaming the streets of London.
Some conspiracy nut is going to find a connection.
Dali designed the Chupa Chups lollipop logo.
I've never heard of these lollipops, but now I want one!
Harriet Tubman was alive at the same time as both Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan.
In 1922, Betty White and the Ottoman Empire both existed.
People walked on the moon before we put wheels on a suitcase
Something that oddly did NOT exist at the same time: Tyrannosaurus Rex is closer in time to humans than to a Stegosaurus.
Here's one you may not know. Ducks, primates and T rex were exact contemporaries. All alive in the Maastrichtian era.
Sharks are older than trees and Saturn’s rings.
Hold on a second. There is still a lot of debate about the age of Saturn's rings in astronomical circles. The observations of the Cassini spacecraft mission should have given us a firm answer, but didn't. The age is still uncertain by a factor of about 100.
Salvador Dali attended an Alice Cooper concert once
The Qing Dynasty of China collapsed in 1912, the same year as the Titanic disaster.
Bro, South African Apartheid ended the year that Jurassic Park came out. We were eating popcorn drooling over dinosaur puppets, while they were still fighting to use the same toilet as white people. Pitiful it took so long. Of course, hindsight tells us Apartheid started and ended with $$$ in mind. It was economic disparity that finally pushed for the end of said segregation...As it goes with much of the civil rights successes throughout the 20th century 😑
Yep apartheid ended super recently in the grand scheme of things - 2 years before I was born and I am mid/late twenties. It only ended in 1994, how disgusting. SA was banned from FIFA and the Olympics while apartheid was happening, rightfully so, also banned from a lot of trade and many counties refused to do business with SA (as they should) hence the economic factor that finally brought an end it it.
2 empires, The Roman Empire and The Ottoman Empire, spanned the entire gap from Jesus to Babe Ruth.
That's a long time. They don't make empires like they used to these days.
Winston Churchill:
• rode in a cavalry charge
• commanded nuclear weapons
William Shakespeare and Pocahontas were alive at the same time.
Prisoners began to arrive to Auschwitz a few days after McDonald's was founded.
The last surviving witness to the Lincoln assassination appeared on the TV game show *I've Got a Secret* several weeks before his death in 1954.
Queen Elisabeth II and Marilyn Monroe were born in the same year, 1926.
The first episode of Doctor Who aired the day after Kennedy was assassinated.
Pablo Picasso died the same year Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" was released.
You were alive at the same time as the last living Civil War widow. She only died three years ago.
Musashi was wandering around Japan having duels when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine chapel
Anne Frank, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Walters [were born in 1929.](https://twitter.com/WhatTheFFacts/status/446672526572519425), Barbra Walter died in December 2022.
Surely in keeping with the BP style that should read "[were alived in 1929]".
Laws making interacial marriage illegal in Mississippi were still on the books in 1994.
Was Mississippi a little slow? It's Mississippi's second appearance on this list and not for good reasons!
There are definitely Japanese people alive right now who have interacted with actual samurai.
(Japan started modernizing and abolishing the samurai in the 1860s, so a samurai born in the 1840s that lived to be 100 would overlap with the lifespan of someone who is 80+ years old)
''Saigo Takamori of Japan is known as the Last Samurai, who lived from 1828 to 1877''. I had no idea it was banned.. thought it just died out. Super interesting but so kinda sad. ''The emperor and his advisers sought to transform Japan into a powerful, industrialized nation-state, capable of standing toe-to-toe with Western powers. Central to this plan was the dismantling of the feudal system, including the abolition of the samurai class.''
If you were born before January 7, 1989, you existed at the same time as Emperor Hirohito.
Galileo Galilei could have taught at Harvard.
Cleopatra lives closer to us than when the pyramids were built
Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Marc Antony all died roughly 30 years before the birth of Christ. Egypt was just as alluring and fascinating to the Ptolomies as it is to us now.
The Titanic maiden voyage happened the same year as MDMA was created.
Man walked on the moon, Wendy's was founded, and Sesame Street first aired all in the same year.
That's also the year that Bouche and Audi's soft can-opener was born.
The Jonestown Massacre and the airing of The Star Wars Holiday Special happened within the same 48 hours.
It wasn't Kool-Aid. It was Flavor-Aid, the generic cousin.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, John Philip Sousa, and Clint Eastwood were all alive at the same time.
The Marquis de Lafayette (from the American Revolutionary War and the Hamilton musical) lived long enough to have seen the first 3D motion picture. (Stereoscopy was invented a year before his death.)
The fax machine was invented the same year that Victoria, British Columbia was established as a trading post.
Anyone else feel like the fax machine was invented hundreds of years before it was ever used? Like they made one, and it took forever for them to realize they needed a second one?
Pablo Picasso died 2 years before the Vietnam war ended
I know when Picasso existed but somehow I fail to accept this.
Anne frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were born the same year.
Had to fact check this one, I couldn’t believe it. Like I know when the holocaust happened and that MLK was in his 30s and 40s while involved in the civil rights movements, but they just feel like different worlds. Anyways, it’s true. They were both born in 1929
How about a twist on an old favourite:
Mammoths still existed when Ea-Nasir was selling s****y copper
Strangely. In a recurring theme, Nanni’s evidence of this was allegedly eaten by a mammoth.
Goodfellas was released a few weeks before West and East Germany reunited
And the Berlin Wall coming down was a complete misunderstanding. They were supposed to build a gate to let ppl through but there was some confusion and the whole lot came down instead.
When the Civil War broke out in America, the modern bicycle had just been invented. (1860 for Michaux and Lallement's 'velocipede' and 1861 for the attack on Ft. Sumter)
Also, Nintendo is only 21 years younger than Tabasco sauce. (1868 and 1889)
Nintendo started out manufacturing playing cards. So yes, 1868 IS correct.
King Mongkut of Siam (the King featured in Roger’s and Hammerstein’s the King and I) ruled at the same time President Lincoln entered office. Mongkut even offered the president a couple of elephants for the war effort. Technically, the letter was addressed to Buchanan, but he had left office by the time the letter arrived.
One of the stupidest things about that musical was that when the king talked about giving Lincoln elephants, they were all the same gender. Presumably, someone with 82 children didn't know how babies were made. I mean, making his words simple because he's not comfortable speaking the language is acceptable. Showing him to be an idiot is not. He was a VERY intelligent man. I'm sorry, but that's a huge pet peeve of mine.
Aboriginal Australians were on Earth the same time as wooly mammoths.
One you may not know. Aboriginals were in Australia before Bass Straight existed. They walked to Tasmania on dry ground.
The last lynching happened in Mobile, AL on 21 March **1981**.
In 1994 the following bands released albums:
- Notorious BIG
- Oasis
- Hootie and the Blowfish
- Usher
- Korn
- Outkast
- Beck
- Soundgarden
- Green Day
- Pearl Jam
- Nine Inch Nails
- The Lion King ( I **can** feel the love tonight)
- The Cranberries
- Bon Jovi
- Ace of Base
- Sheryl Crow
What a decade to be a music fan.
The Roman Empire could’ve ended in 1922 if you see the Ottomans as legitimate successors to the Eastern Roman Empire as they never officially got rid of the titles Vasileus and Kaysar i Rum
For those who can't make the titles out: vasileus = greek basileos = king. Kaysar i Rum = Caesar of Rome.
Nikola Tesla could have witnessed the US Civil War and World War 2. (1856-1943)
he missed Elon musk by 28 years, and the invention of the Tesla car by 65 years..
Current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein is older than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Which is WHY the US needs term limits on the Senate and Congress. Yep I’m from the USA, no one has any idea about how frustrated I am right now. I’m so angry right now, and so sad at the same time.
COVID-19 and the last American Civil War pensioner
Irene Triplett was born in 1930 to an elderly Civil War veteran and his wife. Somehow she inherited his pension when her father died and she died in March of 2020.
John Tyler was the 10th President of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845. He still has one living grandson.
For more context, Tyler was born in 1790. He married multiple times and fathered a son in his 60s I believe. That son fathered a son in his 60s or 70s which is why this is a thing. Not uncommen though. My grandfather was born in 1894. My father was born in 1932 when my grandfather was 38. I wasn't born until 1979 when my father was 46. To put that another way, my paternal grandfather was drafted to serve in the first World War when my maternal grandfather was 4 and my maternal grandmother wasn't even 1 yet. Gives more meaning to age just being a number.
I forget the specifics, but technically a samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln.
Why are there so many submissions about samurais, fax machines, and Abe lol
The Islamic caliphate existed during WW1
Christopher Lee saw the last public execution.
Hey! I said that in a previous post! It was the guillotine one.
John Cena and John Oliver were both on the same day, ALSO in 1977.
The last assault on the Capitol happened the same year the last Spider-Man movie (No Way Home) was released in 2021.
Kobe Bryant and the last Shah of Iran shared the earth for a few months
Henry VIII lived long enough to be able to receive a labiaplasty.
I could have met Laura Ingalls Wilder. OK, don't know what I could have told her, since I was just 2 when she died, and spoke only French at the time ;-))
I could have met Sergei Prokofiev, but since I was only three months old when he died, I imagine we'd have been similarly lacking in suitable topics for conversation. ;-)
Load More Replies... 50,000 years ago. Hobbits were living in Flores. Neanderthals were living in Spain. And Aborigines were living in Australia.
Frank Sinatra could have listened to "Gangster's Paradise" (He died in 1998 and the song was released in 1995)
I guarantee he heard the Stevie Wonder song that Gangster's Paradise was ripped off from, which was released in 1976.
Load More Replies...
Here's one you may not have thought of. The last time Scotland was a country, so was Schleswig-Holstein.
That depends on your definition of a country. Scotland is a sovereign nation within the UK with its own education and legal system, amongst other things. It's actually recognised by the UN as such. Please go to Scotland and tell them that they're not a country. Would love to hear how you get on.
Load More Replies... I could have met Laura Ingalls Wilder. OK, don't know what I could have told her, since I was just 2 when she died, and spoke only French at the time ;-))
I could have met Sergei Prokofiev, but since I was only three months old when he died, I imagine we'd have been similarly lacking in suitable topics for conversation. ;-)
Load More Replies... 50,000 years ago. Hobbits were living in Flores. Neanderthals were living in Spain. And Aborigines were living in Australia.
Frank Sinatra could have listened to "Gangster's Paradise" (He died in 1998 and the song was released in 1995)
I guarantee he heard the Stevie Wonder song that Gangster's Paradise was ripped off from, which was released in 1976.
Load More Replies... Here's one you may not have thought of. The last time Scotland was a country, so was Schleswig-Holstein.
That depends on your definition of a country. Scotland is a sovereign nation within the UK with its own education and legal system, amongst other things. It's actually recognised by the UN as such. Please go to Scotland and tell them that they're not a country. Would love to hear how you get on.
Load More Replies...