Science & Technology,History,CuriositiesJUL 24, 2023

40 Bits Of History That People Are Shocked To Learn Happened Simultaneously

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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.

#1

40 Bits Of History That People Are Shocked To Learn Happened Simultaneously

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)

cruiserman_80, Wikipedia

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295points

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.

LambertonRegistry, Ben Seymour

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267points

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.*

DJBlok, Emily Karakis

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263points

#4

The last mammoths lived at the time the pyramids were under construction.

Hopeful_Mecha_Angel, Andrés Dallimonti

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232points

#5

I always found it strange that Victorian England and the Wild West happened at the same time.

Latvian_Pete, Abigail Keenan

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224points

#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.

guiporto32

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214points

#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.

zestyspleen, NASA

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209points

#8

*Frozen* came out the same year Mississippi officially abolished slavery.

ItsGotThatBang, Disney

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194points

#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.

SleeplessShitposter, Paul Glazzard

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192points