SortStack #541 — 2027-12-02

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Socrates is condemned to death and drinks hemlock in Athens 399 BCE

   Convicted of corrupting the youth, he refused friends' escape plans. He never wrote anything down — everything we know comes via Plato and others.

2. The American colonies declare independence from Britain 1776

   Most delegates didn't sign the Declaration until August. John Adams predicted Americans would forever celebrate the second of July.

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 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. 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.

6. The container ship Ever Given wedges itself across the Suez Canal 2021

   For six days it blocked an estimated $10 billion of trade per day, while a single excavator digging at its bow became a global meme.

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