If there’s one thing students of history agree on, it’s that there’s a lot of it. Seriously, do you know how many years there have been? By our count, just over two thousand. Plus there are six billion people alive on the planet right now, and those are just the living ones. How many have died? Probably like twice that. And all of them do things, like, every day! Mind blowing, right? Our point is that there is a lot of stuff that’s happened in the world, and we’ve noticed that some years seem to have consistent pretty consistent themes. What does this mean? Global Conspiracy? Aliens? Meaningless coincidence? No one can say for sure, but it’s definitely that last one.
10. 1439: The Year of Printing
Everyone knows that in 1439, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, paving the way for the proliferation of the written word, the explosion of communication, and the internet, which has now reached its zenith with list-based internet comedy, the highest form of art ever. But what you may not know is that also in 1439 there was born a man in China named Hua Sui, who would go on to perfect the moveable type in China. Which, considering they have a far more complicated written-language, puts the race to written-word supremacy about neck-and-neck at this point.
9. 1492: The Year of The Planet
In 1492 Christopher Columbus was like the ten millionth person to ever step foot on North America, “discovering” this “new world” full of weird animals and corn and complex societies that had existed for centuries upon centuries. So of course we have a day in his honor, where we celebrate his memory by dressing up in silly costumes, banging on our neighbor’s door and demanding candy. Unless I’m thinking of something else.
What you may not know is that 1492 was also the year that the Ming Dynasty in China monetized commercial transport of grain, which would have massive economic repercussions throughout the region. It’s also the year that the first ever “erdapfel” was built, which we now call a “globe” because we now as a society know that it’s really stupid to call anything an “erdapfel.” 1492 is also the year that the Ensisheim Meteorite fell, which also has stuff to do with planets because space.
8. 1543: The Year We Learned We Weren’t Special
If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t really matter in the world, then we’re very sorry to tell you that that feeling is correct, and it’s all because of 1543. This is the year that Copernicus came up with the idea of the heliocentric universe, challenging the idea that Earth is the center of everything and promptly having the crap murdered out of him.
This is also the year that Andreas Vesalius published the first ever accurate atlas of the human body (and also the first year someone went “eeewwww” at it), and the first time Japan obtained firearms, from a shipwrecked Portuguese vessel, thus connecting them to the rest of the world (through violence), making that world a little smaller and everything just a teency bit more explode-y.
7. 1564: The Year of the Story
This year saw the birth of two pioneers in the English Language: Christopher Marlowe (The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, which has influenced every story you’re ever heard about someone who sold their soul to the devil, including that episode of Futurama) and William Frickin’ Shakespeare (I think he invented “Transformers”).
On top of that, this year marks the first report of a “Rat King,” a mythical creature formed when multiple rats’ tails grow together and they become a monster. It’s also one of the earliest example of an urban-centric myth.
It was also the year that Galileo Galilei was born, a man considered the father of modern science by both Einstein and Stephen but who, more importantly for this list, totally gets mentioned in this classic Queen Song. Also, without his theories we definitely wouldn’t have modern science fiction, but maybe that’s too much of a stretch.
6. 1776: The Year of Taking Charge and Ruling Things (Sometimes Secretly)
Obviously, 1776 is most notable in the United States for being the year that Common Sense was written and the Declaration of Independence was written, signed, and read publicly.
But on top of that, we have Adam Smith publishing An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations, the document that would inform Classical Economic thought up until right frickin’ now today. The clincher? This is also the year that the Illuminati was founded. Coincidence? Coincidence?!?
5. 1783: the Year of Awesome
If you’ve ever fantasized about chasing wolves around in a hot air balloon while chugging whiskey as a volcano explodes in the background and meteors streak across the night sky, then man was 1783 the year for you. The first three human flights, the death of the last Grey Wolf in Ireland, the founding of Evan Williams’ distillery, the explosion of Laki in Iceland and the great meteor of 1783 all happened this year.
What do they have in common? All those things are awesome, except for the last Grey Wolf and the volcano, we guess, because both of those things involved an awful lot of death.
4. 1791: The Year of Communication
Remember, earlier, when we mentioned the printing press? This year blows that year out of the water: Not only was this the year that Claude Chappe and his brothers used telescopes and panels to, for the first time ever, communicate information faster than a letter could be carried, but this was also the year that Samuel Morse (inventor of Morse Code) was born. The Observer, the first ever Sunday Newspaper, was first published, American ships finally reached Japan, and the Bill of Rights was ratified, which promised Freedom of Expression to all Americans.
3. 1893: The Year of Sensationalism
1893 is the year that really kicked off the entertainment business: Carl Anton Larsen became the first person to ski Antarctica, which is the kind of thing people only do because they want other people to read about it. Sherlock Holmes was killed for the first time just as Conrad Veidt was being born — Veidt being an actor who would go on to play roles that would become the inspiration for Batman Villains The Joker and The Penguin. This is also the year of the World’s Fair in Chicago, the year that Thomas Edison built the first ever motion picture studio, and shows the 1st movie close-up (of a sneeze), Edison studio, West Orange, NJ
Perhaps most importantly, this is the year of the Lizzie Borden trial, which is commonly regarded as the first “trial by public opinion,” where speculation and gossip was deemed more important than facts or evidence. You’ll notice how that philosophy has since permeated everything we do.
2. 1916: The Year of the Woman
1916 was the year Zewditu I of Ethiopia, the first woman head of an internationally recognized state in Africa, took power, and also the year that Jeanette Rankin of Montana, first female Congressperson, was elected to the American House of Representatives. It’s also the year that Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing for Birth Control, and the year Margaret Sanger opened the first US Birth Control clinic, taking major steps towards giving women sovereignty over their own bodies. Go women!
1. 1948: The Year Human Rights Got Popular
Probably due to a collective “oh crap” moment after World War 2, 1948 saw an explosion in Human Rights activism: Edith Mae Irby was the first African American woman admitted to The University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock, shortly after Mahatma Gandhi began fasting and was assassinated in India. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed by the UN, Baltimore County Medical Society dropped its racial bar and the US Military ended segregation. The House of Un-American Activities televised its meetings for the first time, an act that would eventually lead to its disgrace and disbandment. The infamous Shelley V. Kramer decision was also made, which made racially-restrictive covenants unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, the pendulum swung the other way pretty hard too, as this is the year Apartheid began its comprehensive implementation in South Africa, which would not be dismantled until 1994.
So some of this stuff is trivial, and the majority of it totally coincidental, but isn’t drawing weird connections in history fun?
19 Comments
rat kings are not a myth. In fact, it has happened many times. When too many roents are kept in too small a space, somehow their tails get tangled together. Most starve to death.
How are any of these coincidences?
Why is it stupid to call something “Erdapfel”? Where I live, that’s still a potato and it’s a perfectly good name for it.
First Televised baseball game in 1893? Really?
Egads! Believe it or not this article was rewritten 3 times and had numerous edits and how that got by the writer and the editor is beyond me. The first televised baseball game was in 1939, not 1893. I can’t even deduce what the writer may have been referring to in his description. The only interesting baseball news was this boring gem, which was not sensational at all: Oct 14th – Harry Wright suggests umps keep ball-strike count a secret.
Anyway, I have removed the incorrect statement.
TWO editors because I edited an early version last year- Egads is right! And I still have not been able to get the image of the rat king out of my head – it has traumatized me…
We are only human.
true 🙂
Rather sorrily misinformed about Margaret Sanger. Such organizations were formed to rid society of the ‘undesirables,’ mental defectives, and blacks.
Had nothing to do with giving ‘women sovereignty over their own bodies.’ It’s more like a government-hack taking sovereignty over the bodies of millions of men and women by termination of pregnancies and forced sterilizations.
Veidt’s Gwynplaine from “The Man Who Laughs” inspired the Joker, not the Penguin.
In #8 you attribute the idea of the heliocentric solar system to Copernicus when the ancient Greeks had it figured out a long time ago. Even Copernicus referenced the Pythagoreans as the developers of the idea. He never claimed the idea as his own. Aristarchus was the first documented person to put the idea forth in 270 BCE. Google is awesome.
Good point, Marc. We should have stated that Copernicus was the guy to get everyone believing it.
“The notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the 3rd century BC by Aristarchus of Samos, but had received no support from most other ancient astronomers.
It was not until the 16th century that a fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system was presented, by the Renaissance mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic cleric Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland, leading to the Copernican Revolution. “
The actor was Conrad VEIDT (pronounced “fight”), not Viedt. Some of his most famous roles were the somnambulist killer in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) and the disfigured man in “The Man Who Laughs” (1928), the latter of which was the inspiration for The Joker character in Batman. He also had a small role in the classic movie “Casablanca” (1942). If you mention someone, you should at least check the spelling and maybe mention for what he is famous. Otherwise, an interesting list.
Correction to Veidt has been made. Thank you.
I expected much more from such an interesting concept. I really enjoyed the entry about sensationalism because the examples were well chosen and fitting. The rest is a little sketchy. Creativity points, though. I think it could be an awesome article with stronger coincidences.
I hope that thing you wrote in the intro about there being a little over 2 thousand years of history is a joke right. If were talking strictly about history of human endeavour, human cuvilisations excluding paleoanthropology then there’s about 12 thousand years of history to go from. Invention of language, common law, establishments of learning institutions, establishment of libraries
I hope that thing you just wrote in response to his Top 10 List is a joke. I really do. Need I point out the plethora of grammatical and punctuation errors that you made, while still trying to sound well above your par in intelligence by using words such as “Paleoanthropology”, and “Endeavor”, which were spelled correct in spite of the fact that you couldn’t even spell “We’re” and “Civilisations” right. If you’re going to smack on how one person portrays history, no matter the length in years, at least do so in an intelligible manner. If you’re not happy, write your own list.
I can’t believe I even wasted my time with you.
Good list, as always!
KB
Sorry English is not my first language as you might have deduced from my name there is also the fact that I’m writing this on my phone which sometimes corrects incorrectly. Now if you want to have a debate about facts I’m more than welcome to indulge you. If you think that the grammatical errors in my comment proves anything about my education, intelligence level
(Continued) or anything else than my language at birth then you’re just proving you’re own
inability to argue to points I brought up in my reply with facts so instead you attack the person on unrelated issues such as grammar. Now speaking of grammar, you imply that my whole comment is unworthy because of two errors: the use of were instead of we’re which is an autocorrect blunder from my phone. I know when and where to use were and we’re ( we are) and because I wrote cuvilisation instead of civilisation which to anybody but the ignorant is an obvious typo. Now please refrain yourself from replying unless it is to have a factual debate like any two intelligent beings would have.