SortStack #1612 — 2030-11-07

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Rome is founded, according to legend, by Romulus 753 BCE

   Romans dated their entire calendar 'ab urbe condita' — from the founding of the city — and the legend says Romulus killed his twin brother Remus over the city walls.

2. Vikings raid the island monastery of Lindisfarne, shocking Europe 793

   The raid is the conventional start of the Viking Age. The scholar Alcuin wrote that 'never before has such terror appeared in Britain.'

3. The Empire State Building opens in New York 1931

   It went up in just 410 days, ahead of schedule and under budget — then sat so vacant during the Depression that locals dubbed it the 'Empty State Building.'

4. Steve Jobs unveils the first iPhone 2007

   The demo units were so buggy that engineers mapped a single 'golden path' of actions for Jobs to follow on stage — deviating risked a crash.

5. 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.

6. DeepMind's AlphaGo defeats Go champion Lee Sedol 2016

   AlphaGo's 'Move 37' was so alien that commentators assumed it was a mistake. Lee won a single game back with a move fans dubbed 'God's touch.'

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