SortStack #1703 — 2031-02-06

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. 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. The Space Shuttle Columbia makes the first shuttle flight 1981

   It was the first time NASA launched humans on a vehicle that had never flown an uncrewed test — commander John Young had already walked on the Moon.

5. The Human Genome Project is declared complete 2003

   The 'complete' genome actually covered about 92% — the trickiest gaps weren't fully sequenced until nearly two decades later.

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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