#21 British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan Served In The First World War And Lived Long Enough To Be Photographed Playing Video Games
Even the language we speak can influence how we think about time. As the BBC has reported, English speakers often imagine it moving horizontally from left to right, which may be connected to the way English is written and read. They also use phrases such as “pushing a deadline back” or “moving a meeting forward.”
Mandarin speakers, meanwhile, often picture time vertically, with the past above and the future below. For instance, the word xia, which means “down,” is used when referring to future events, so the phrase for “next week” can literally translate as “down week.”
#23 Seven Generations Alive At Once; C. 1989
#24 Harry Truman Is The Last Us President To Have Less Than 1 Million Dollars In His Bank Account
Interestingly, people who speak languages that make less of a distinction between the present and future may also act differently when it comes to what lies ahead. One study found that they were more likely to save money and had accumulated more wealth by retirement.
Of course, grammar alone does not determine how someone behaves. Still, it is fascinating to think that the way we talk about tomorrow could affect the choices we make today.
#25 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) Takes Place In 1936, 45 Years Before It's Release. It's Been 45 Years Since 1981
All of this helps explain why timeline comparisons can feel so strange when we first see them. We know that history stretches across thousands of years, yet our minds tend to sort people and events into separate boxes rather than picture exactly how close together they really were.
Once someone points out that two seemingly distant moments happened within the same lifetime, or that something we think of as ancient existed at the same time as something much more recent, the way we see the past can suddenly change.
The dates were always there. Sometimes, we simply need to put them side by side before we can really feel what they mean.
#28 Abraham Lincoln’s Father Lived Long Enough To Be Photographed
#29 Harvard University Had Been Open For 17 Years When The Taj Mahal Was Finally Completed
#30 America Hasn’t Had A President Who Was Fluent In A Language Other Than English Since World War II
#31 Joe Biden Is The Only President In American History From The Silent Generation
#32 If The United States Lasted As Long As The Qing Dynasty, It Would Collapse In 2044
#34 Two Game Of Thrones Actors Had Fathers Born In The 1870s
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#36 Alan Ruck, Who Played Cameron In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Is Now 70 Years Old
#37 Ian Mcdiarmid Was Only 37 Years Old When He Played The Emperor In Star Wars Episode Vi: Return Of The Jedi
#39 Roughly 1.3 Billion People Have Passed Away Globally Since The First Youtube Video Got Uploaded On The Internet (Me At The Zoo; 2005)
#40 Of The 59 People Mentioned In Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire”, Only 3 Are Currently Alive
