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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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#1
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!
#2
Oxford University celebrated its 200th graduating class by the time the Aztec Empire started in Central America.
Marcos Valencia 1 year ago (edited)
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.
#3
My favourite that I've seen:
When Harvard opened, they didn't have calculus classes because *calculus hadn't been invented yet.*
#4
The last mammoths lived at the time the pyramids were under construction.
BetterBitterButter 1 year ago
You see that thing people building over there? That's gonna outlive us!
#5
I always found it strange that Victorian England and the Wild West happened at the same time.
80 Van 1 year ago
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.
#6
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.
#7
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.
Barong 1 year ago
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.
#8
*Frozen* came out the same year Mississippi officially abolished slavery.
scag$y 1 year ago
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.
#9
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.
#11
Women in Switzerland got right to vote in 1971 when India was already having a woman prime minister !
#12
Nintendo was founded when Jack the Ripper was roaming the streets of London.
#13
Dali designed the Chupa Chups lollipop logo.
Bouche, Audi, and Shyla, oh my! 1 year ago
I've never heard of these lollipops, but now I want one!
#14
Harriet Tubman was alive at the same time as both Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan.
#15
In 1922, Betty White and the Ottoman Empire both existed.
#16
People walked on the moon before we put wheels on a suitcase
#17
Something that oddly did NOT exist at the same time: Tyrannosaurus Rex is closer in time to humans than to a Stegosaurus.
David Paterson 1 year ago (edited)
Here's one you may not know. Ducks, primates and T rex were exact contemporaries. All alive in the Maastrichtian era.
#18
Sharks are older than trees and Saturn’s rings.
David Paterson 1 year ago
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.
#19
Salvador Dali attended an Alice Cooper concert once
#20
The Qing Dynasty of China collapsed in 1912, the same year as the Titanic disaster.
#21
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 😑
xxx 1 year ago
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.
#22
2 empires, The Roman Empire and The Ottoman Empire, spanned the entire gap from Jesus to Babe Ruth.
General Anaesthesia 1 year ago
That's a long time. They don't make empires like they used to these days.
#23
Winston Churchill:
• rode in a cavalry charge
• commanded nuclear weapons
#24
William Shakespeare and Pocahontas were alive at the same time.
#25
Prisoners began to arrive to Auschwitz a few days after McDonald's was founded.
#26
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.
#27
Queen Elisabeth II and Marilyn Monroe were born in the same year, 1926.
#28
The first episode of Doctor Who aired the day after Kennedy was assassinated.
#29
Pablo Picasso died the same year Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" was released.
#31
You were alive at the same time as the last living Civil War widow. She only died three years ago.
#32
Musashi was wandering around Japan having duels when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine chapel
#34
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.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Surely in keeping with the BP style that should read "[were alived in 1929]".
#35
Laws making interacial marriage illegal in Mississippi were still on the books in 1994.
BetterBitterButter 1 year ago
Was Mississippi a little slow? It's Mississippi's second appearance on this list and not for good reasons!
#36
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)
xxx 1 year ago
''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.''
#37
If you were born before January 7, 1989, you existed at the same time as Emperor Hirohito.
#38
Galileo Galilei could have taught at Harvard.
#39
Cleopatra lives closer to us than when the pyramids were built
Vanessa Panerosa 1 year ago
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.
#40
The Titanic maiden voyage happened the same year as MDMA was created.
What do you think ?
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
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 ;-))
John Baker 1 year ago
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... David Paterson 1 year ago
50,000 years ago. Hobbits were living in Flores. Neanderthals were living in Spain. And Aborigines were living in Australia.
TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago (edited)
Frank Sinatra could have listened to "Gangster's Paradise" (He died in 1998 and the song was released in 1995)
ί𝔫ＣίŦᵃт𝐔𝐬 1 year ago
I guarantee he heard the Stevie Wonder song that Gangster's Paradise was ripped off from, which was released in 1976.
Load More Replies...
David Paterson 1 year ago
Here's one you may not have thought of. The last time Scotland was a country, so was Schleswig-Holstein.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 1 year ago
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... Annik Perrot 1 year ago
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 ;-))
John Baker 1 year ago
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... David Paterson 1 year ago
50,000 years ago. Hobbits were living in Flores. Neanderthals were living in Spain. And Aborigines were living in Australia.
TotallyNOTaFox 1 year ago (edited)
Frank Sinatra could have listened to "Gangster's Paradise" (He died in 1998 and the song was released in 1995)
ί𝔫ＣίŦᵃт𝐔𝐬 1 year ago
I guarantee he heard the Stevie Wonder song that Gangster's Paradise was ripped off from, which was released in 1976.
Load More Replies... David Paterson 1 year ago
Here's one you may not have thought of. The last time Scotland was a country, so was Schleswig-Holstein.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 1 year ago
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.
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