SortStack #3432 — 2035-11-01

By year · Order from earliest to most recent.

1. Vikings raid the island monastery of Lindisfarne, shocking Europe 793

   The raid is the conventional start of the Viking Age. The scholar Alcuin wrote that 'never before has such terror appeared in Britain.'

2. King John seals the Magna Carta at Runnymede 1215

   John never intended to honor it — the Pope annulled the charter within ten weeks — yet it became a foundation stone of constitutional law anyway.

3. Martin Luther publishes his Ninety-Five Theses, sparking the Reformation 1517

   Thanks to the new printing press, the theses spread across Germany in about two weeks — arguably history's first viral document.

4. Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre 1865

   General Grant declined an invitation to join Lincoln in the box that night. Booth, a famous actor, knew the play well enough to time his shot to a big laugh line.

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 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.

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