SortStack #1696 — 2031-01-30

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. The boy pharaoh Tutankhamun dies in Egypt 1323 BCE

   He died around age nineteen after a minor reign — yet his is the most famous tomb ever found, because grave robbers largely missed it for over 3,000 years.

2. Mount Vesuvius erupts and buries the Roman city of Pompeii 79

   The famous 'bodies' of Pompeii are plaster casts: excavators poured plaster into hollows left in the ash where victims' bodies had decayed.

3. Magellan's expedition sets sail to circle the globe 1519

   Five ships and about 270 men left Spain; one ship and 18 men returned three years later. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines along the way.

4. The Wright brothers achieve the first powered airplane flight 1903

   The first flight lasted twelve seconds and covered about 37 meters — shorter than the wingspan of a modern jumbo jet.

5. Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space 1961

   His single orbit lasted 108 minutes, and he parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule — landing in a field where a farmer and her granddaughter stared in disbelief.

6. 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.

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