SortStack #1318 — 2030-01-17

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Alexander the Great founds the city of Alexandria in Egypt 331 BCE

   It became home to both the Great Library and the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders. Alexander never saw the finished city — he died eight years later.

2. Christopher Columbus makes landfall in the Americas 1492

   Columbus never set foot on the North American mainland and insisted until his death that he had reached the edge of Asia.

3. Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering the First World War 1914

   The archduke's driver took a wrong turn and stalled directly in front of Gavrilo Princip, handing the assassin a second chance after the morning's bomb attempt failed.

4. Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War 1939

   Britain and France declared war two days later — then months of eerie quiet followed on the Western Front, a period nicknamed the 'Phoney War.'

5. The first video is uploaded to YouTube 2005

   'Me at the zoo' is nineteen seconds of co-founder Jawed Karim standing in front of elephants in San Diego, noting they have 'really, really long trunks.'

6. The Burj Khalifa opens in Dubai as the world's tallest building 2010

   At 828 meters, its tip can be seen from about 95 km away — and people on the top floors can watch the sunset minutes after it sets at ground level.

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