SortStack #1752 — 2031-03-27

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Johannes Gutenberg develops his movable-type printing press 1440

   Gutenberg was a goldsmith by trade. Of the roughly 180 Bibles he printed, 49 survive — and he died broke after losing his workshop in a lawsuit.

2. Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes shogun, beginning Japan's Edo period 1603

   The Tokugawa shogunate brought over 250 years of internal peace and isolation — and its capital Edo, later renamed Tokyo, grew into one of the world's largest cities.

3. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone 1876

   Bell's lawyer filed at the patent office mere hours before rival Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar device — one of history's closest patent races.

4. Humans walk on the Moon for the first time 1969

   The Apollo guidance computer had less processing power than a modern pocket calculator — and alarms from it nearly aborted the landing.

5. Pac-Man arrives in arcades 1980

   Designer Toru Iwatani said the shape was inspired by a pizza with a slice missing. The game was renamed from 'Puck Man' to deter vandals altering the P.

6. The Philae probe makes the first-ever landing on a comet 2014

   Philae's harpoons failed and it bounced twice — the first bounce lasted nearly two hours in the comet's feeble gravity before it settled in a shadowy crevice.

← All puzzles · Play today’s SortStack