SortStack #394 — 2027-07-08

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. The first ancient Olympic Games are held at Olympia 776 BCE

   The only event was a single sprint of about 190 meters, and the first recorded champion was Coroebus of Elis — a cook.

2. James Watt patents his improved steam engine 1769

   Watt also coined 'horsepower' as a marketing tool — comparing his engines to the draft horses customers would be replacing. The watt unit is named for him.

3. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone 1876

   Bell's lawyer filed at the patent office mere hours before rival Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar device — one of history's closest patent races.

4. 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.

5. The Berlin Wall falls 1989

   A flustered official misread new travel rules at a press conference, saying they took effect 'immediately.' Crowds swamped the checkpoints within hours.

6. The Bitcoin network launches with its first block 2009

   Satoshi Nakamoto embedded a newspaper headline about bank bailouts into the very first block — a permanent timestamp and a pointed message.

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