SortStack #3502 — 2036-01-10

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. Magellan's expedition sets sail to circle the globe 1519

   Five ships and about 270 men left Spain; one ship and 18 men returned three years later. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines along the way.

3. Galileo points a telescope at the night sky for the first time 1609

   With a telescope magnifying about twenty times, he saw mountains on the Moon and four moons of Jupiter — direct evidence that not everything orbits Earth.

4. Napoleon is finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo 1815

   Overnight rain delayed the French attack, buying time for Prussian reinforcements. Wellington called it 'the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.'

5. Queen Victoria dies after the longest reign in British history to date 1901

   She reigned for 63 years and her children married into so many royal houses she was called 'the grandmother of Europe.'

6. An armistice ends the fighting of the First World War 1918

   It took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The last soldier killed, Henry Gunther, died one minute before it began.

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