SortStack #3238 — 2035-04-21
By duration · Order from shortest to longest.
- Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' 5.9 min
Radio executives told Freddie Mercury it was far too long to ever get airplay. It topped the UK charts twice, 16 years apart.
- An episode of The Simpsons, without adverts 22 min
The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted primetime series in US history — Bart has been ten years old for over three and a half decades.
- The Apollo 11 mission, launch to splashdown 8.1 days
Of the whole voyage, Armstrong and Aldrin spent barely 22 hours on the lunar surface — and only about two and a half walking on it.
- The construction of the Empire State Building 1.1 years
Crews added roughly four and a half storeys per week, finishing ahead of schedule and under budget during the Great Depression.
- The first circumnavigation of the globe (Magellan's expedition) 3 years
Magellan himself never made it — he was killed in the Philippines. Just 18 of the original ~270 crew limped home aboard one remaining ship.
- The time since a human last stood on the Moon 53.4 years
Gene Cernan traced his daughter's initials in the dust in December 1972 — no boots have touched the surface since.