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Do you remember those exercises that they gave you as homework in school in which two lists of words and you had to connect those of one column with those of the other? If there were the words “Mammoth” and “Cleopatra” in one, and “Pyramids” in the other, with which of those words would you connect the monumental buildings with a square base and a pointed top? Probably with the famous pharaoh, and you would be right… from one point of view.
However, if you were a historian, the other option would also be correct. And it is that, If you organized what we know about history by overlapping events, you would come across some surprises.like these that the magazine compiled BBC History Extra.
1. Woolly mammoths survived until the age of the pyramids
Contrary to popular belief that mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age, Small numbers of these huge mammals survived in various places for about 6,000 more years..
In fact, a population of woolly mammoths roamed Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, off Siberia, just 3,700 years ago, centuries after the construction of the pyramids of Giza and the enigmatic megalithic monument located on what is now England, Stonehenge.
2. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first moon landing than to the construction of the pyramids of Giza
As incredible as it may seem, Cleopatra (~69-30 BC), the last active ruler of ancient Egypt, was born more than 2,400 years after the three main pyramids of Giza were completed (built between 2550 and 2490 BC). In 1969, “barely” two millennia after his death, the American astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first transcendental steps on the Moon.
3. Jack the Ripper was shocking the world when Nintendo was founded
Most people know Nintendo as a benchmark of video game culture at the end of the 20th century, which produced hits ranging from Super Mario Bros until The Legend of Zelda. But the company actually It was founded in Kyoto, Japan, in 1889 to produce decks of handmade hanafuda cards, cards that have drawings of plants, animals and objects, with which various games are played.
That same year, in England, the famous serial killer nicknamed Jack the Ripper it still made headlines; the fifth murder attributed to “Jack” had been committed the previous November. London’s Metropolitan Police investigated 11 brutal murders between 1888 and 1891, but there were “the five canonicals”, so-called, they had elements in common. The case could never be resolved.
4. The Great Wall of China was finally completed two years after the world’s first phone call
The Great Wall of Chinaone of the most famous artificial structures on the planet, It was largely built over a long period stretching from the 3rd century BC to the 17th century AD., and in the end it ended up measuring 21,196 kilometers. However, despite its ancient origins, construction work was not completed until 1878, at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Two years earlier, Alexander Graham Bell had catapulted the world into a new era of modernity with his groundbreaking invention: the phone. On March 10, 1876, in Boston, USA, he used “the instrument” for the first time in history to call his assistant Thomas Watson, who was in another room. He told her what millions would later say over the horn of his invention: “Come here. I want to see you”.
5. Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
The culture now known as the Aztec may seem like ancient history, but the origin of this Mesoamerican empire is generally dated to 1325, with the founding of the capital city, Tenochtitlán (the site of modern-day Mexico City). Teaching at Oxford Universitywhich still welcomes hundreds of students each year, started in 1096. The university colleges, Balliol and Merton, were founded between 1249 and 1264.
6. Machu Picchu and the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes were completed 60 years apart
The Italian Renaissance and the Inca Empire are not usually associated with each other, but they were both phenomena of the same era. The Peruvian citadel of Machu Picchulocated in the Andes, It was completed around 1450at the height of the empire’s power, and was probably occupied until around 1530.
More than 10,500 kilometers away, while the Inca emperors continued to enjoy their mountaintop retreat, in 1512 the Italian artist Miguel Angel he was putting the finishing touches to his frescoes on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
7. A samurai could have sent a fax to Abraham Lincoln
Perhaps the strangest of all the facts gathered here is that there was a 22-year span during which a Japanese samurai could, in theory, have sent a fax to American President Abraham Lincoln. Japan’s samurai class existed until the end of the feudal system in 1868.; the electric printing telegraph (forerunner of the digital fax) was patented in 1843; and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
8. Coca-Cola is older than the Eiffel Tower
On May 8, 1886, Dr. John Pemberton sold the first glass of Coca Cola at Jacobs Pharmacy in Atlanta, charging five cents a glass. Almost three years later, on March 31, 1889, construction of the 300-meter-high Eiffel Tower in Paris, France was completed.
9. “Star Wars” came out the same year France cut off its last head.
Although it is a punishment most widely associated with the bloody Reign of Terror period of the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the guillotine was still used as a method of execution well into the 20th century. In fact, the last person executed by guillotine in France was the Tunisian immigrant Hamida Djandoubi, in September 1977.
In May of that same year, the hit epic film Star Wars by George Lucas was screened for the first time in theaters, where the first of millions of fans fell in love with the adventures of Luke Skywalker, the young man who finds himself involved in an interplanetary war between the authoritarian Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance.
*By Charlotte Hodgman
