SortStack #100 — 2026-09-17
By year · Order from earliest to most recent.
- The boy pharaoh Tutankhamun dies in Egypt 1323 BCE
He died around age nineteen after a minor reign — yet his is the most famous tomb ever found, because grave robbers largely missed it for over 3,000 years.
- The Aztecs found Tenochtitlan on an island in a lake 1325
Legend says they built where an eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake — the image now at the center of Mexico's flag. Mexico City stands on the drained lakebed.
- Queen Victoria dies after the longest reign in British history to date 1901
She reigned for 63 years and her children married into so many royal houses she was called 'the grandmother of Europe.'
- Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War 1939
Britain and France declared war two days later — then months of eerie quiet followed on the Western Front, a period nicknamed the 'Phoney War.'
- The world's first website goes online at CERN 1991
Tim Berners-Lee's original site, info.cern.ch, explained what the web was and how to make your own page. A restored copy is still online today.
- Lehman Brothers collapses, deepening the global financial crisis 2008
With over $600 billion in assets, it remains the largest bankruptcy filing in American history.