SortStack #310 — 2027-04-15

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. The Great Pyramid of Giza is completed for Pharaoh Khufu 2560 BCE

   It remained the tallest human-made structure on Earth for about 3,800 years, until Lincoln Cathedral's spire topped it in the 1300s.

2. Constantinople falls to the Ottoman army of Mehmed the Conqueror 1453

   The Ottomans breached walls that had stood for a thousand years using enormous cannons — built by Orban, a Hungarian engineer who had first offered his services to the Byzantines.

3. The Taj Mahal is completed in Agra 1653

   Emperor Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, employing some 20,000 workers — and was later imprisoned by his own son within sight of it.

4. Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of the French 1804

   At the ceremony in Notre-Dame, Napoleon took the crown from Pope Pius VII and placed it on his own head — a move planned in advance, not an impulsive snub.

5. IBM's Deep Blue defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov 1997

   Kasparov was reportedly unnerved by one inexplicable move — which some engineers later suggested may have been the result of a software bug.

6. Steve Jobs unveils the first iPhone 2007

   The demo units were so buggy that engineers mapped a single 'golden path' of actions for Jobs to follow on stage — deviating risked a crash.

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