SortStack #401 — 2027-07-15

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Hannibal marches his army and war elephants across the Alps 218 BCE

   He set out with around 37 elephants; nearly all died in the crossing or soon after, yet he rampaged through Italy for fifteen years.

2. The Eiffel Tower opens to the public in Paris 1889

   It was meant to stand for only twenty years. Its usefulness as a giant radio antenna saved it from demolition.

3. The Sydney Opera House officially opens 1973

   It opened ten years late and roughly fourteen times over budget. Architect Jorn Utzon resigned mid-project and never returned to see it finished.

4. Pac-Man arrives in arcades 1980

   Designer Toru Iwatani said the shape was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing. The game was renamed from 'Puck Man' to deter vandals altering the P.

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. Fire engulfs Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris 2019

   The spire fell, but the rooftop beehives survived — and the cathedral reopened five years later after a meticulous reconstruction.

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