SortStack #65 — 2026-08-13

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Vikings raid the island monastery of Lindisfarne, shocking Europe 793

   The raid is the conventional start of the Viking Age. The scholar Alcuin wrote that 'never before has such terror appeared in Britain.'

2. William the Conqueror defeats King Harold at the Battle of Hastings 1066

   The Bayeux Tapestry — actually an embroidery nearly 70 meters long — tells the story, including Harold's famous (and disputed) arrow in the eye.

3. The Empire State Building opens in New York 1931

   It went up in just 410 days, ahead of schedule and under budget — then sat so vacant during the Depression that locals dubbed it the 'Empty State Building.'

4. The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show 1964

   An estimated 73 million Americans watched — roughly forty percent of the US population — launching the British Invasion overnight.

5. The Live Aid concerts are broadcast from London and Philadelphia 1985

   Phil Collins played both venues in one day, crossing the Atlantic by Concorde. Queen's twenty-minute set is widely ranked the greatest live performance ever.

6. Queen Elizabeth II dies after seventy years on the throne 2022

   She appointed her fifteenth prime minister, Liz Truss, just two days before her death — having started with Winston Churchill.

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