SortStack #627 — 2028-02-26
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- One heartbeat of a hummingbird in flight 48 ms
Hummingbird hearts can hit 1,260 beats per minute in flight, then crash to about 50 at night when the bird enters a hibernation-like torpor.
- Half-time in a football (soccer) match 15 min
The break exists partly thanks to early English schools with different rules — teams switched codes at the interval when playing each other.
- NASA's Perseverance rover travelling from Earth to Mars 203 days
The 480-million-km cruise ended with the 'seven minutes of terror' landing — and the rover carried a small helicopter, Ingenuity, strapped to its belly.
- The Siege of Leningrad in World War II 2.4 years
Through the blockade, scientists at the city's seed bank starved to death rather than eat their collection of edible seeds and potatoes.
- The first circumnavigation of the globe (Magellan's expedition) 3 years
Magellan himself never made it — he was killed in the Philippines. Just 18 of the original ~270 crew limped home aboard one remaining ship.
- The era of the Crusades, from the first to the fall of Acre 194.9 years
Nine major crusades spanned 195 years — and the Fourth never reached the Holy Land at all, sacking Christian Constantinople instead.