SortStack #2405 — 2033-01-08
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- An evening at Wagner's opera 'Götterdämmerung', intervals included 5.5 h
It's only the finale: the full Ring cycle spans four operas over about 15 hours of music, and devotees attend all four nights in a row.
- One full rotation of Earth on its axis 23.9 h
A true rotation takes 23 hours 56 minutes — the extra 4 minutes of our day come from Earth also moving along its orbit and needing to catch up to the Sun.
- The Apollo 13 mission, launch to splashdown 6 days
After the oxygen tank exploded, the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat and slingshotted around the Moon — NASA's 'successful failure'.
- The record-winning Vendée Globe solo sail around the world 64.8 days
Charlie Dalin's 2025 run was nonstop, alone, and unassisted — skippers sleep in 20-minute bursts for the entire circumnavigation.
- The Hundred Years' War between England and France 116.6 years
Despite the name, it lasted 116 years (1337-1453), punctuated by long truces — and technically England and France stayed at war on paper even longer.
- The time since Neanderthals went extinct 39.9K years
They never fully vanished: most people outside Africa carry around 2% Neanderthal DNA, influencing skin, immunity, and even sleep patterns.