SortStack #1544 — 2030-08-31

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. An average human's reaction to a starting gun 252 ms

   Athletics rules treat any sprint start faster than 100 milliseconds as a false start — it's considered humanly impossible to react that quickly.

2. La Tomatina, Spain's giant tomato fight 60 min

   Around 120 tonnes of overripe tomatoes are hurled in Buñol each August; a firework marks the end and the streets are hosed down within hours.

3. The film 'Gone with the Wind', with overture and intermission 4 h

   Still the longest film ever to win Best Picture — and adjusted for inflation, it remains the highest-grossing film of all time.

4. The Wimbledon tennis championships 14 days

   The tournament's famous rest day, the 'Middle Sunday', was only abolished in 2022 after 145 years of tradition.

5. The Romanov dynasty's rule over Russia 304 years

   It began with a 16-year-old reluctantly accepting the throne in 1613 and ended 304 years later with Nicholas II's abdication in 1917.

6. The Western Roman Empire, from Augustus to its fall 501.9 years

   After the West fell in AD 476, the Eastern half carried on for nearly a thousand more years as the Byzantine Empire.

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