These Eye-Opening Photos From History Will Totally Warp Your Understanding Of Time

Any idea what Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth II have in common? Or woolly mammoths and the Great Pyramids of Giza? How about sliced bread and Mickey Mouse? The answer in each case is time. Read on to find out just how many seemingly unconnected people and events are linked by confoundingly contemporaneous dates...

40. Oxford University was around centuries before the Aztec Empire

There’s some evidence that Oxford University had already started taking students early in the 12th century. In any case there’s no doubt that it was a thriving institution by the end of the 1200s. On the other hand the Aztec Empire, based in what is now Mexico, didn’t really make its mark until the 15th century. So those early Oxford students certainly didn’t study that aspect of Central American history – understandable, given that it was still far in the future!

39. Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe were born the same year

Think hard. Can you identify any two women so starkly contrasting in character and career? If you can, let us know. Elizabeth II, the Queen of Britain, was born in April 1926 in London, England. Marilyn the movie star was born a few months later in Los Angeles, California. Sadly, we lost Ms. Monroe in 1962. On a much brighter note, as we write the reigning British monarch is still very much with us.

38. Charles Darwin had a tortoise that lived until 2006

During the research which led to his Origin of Species, Charles Darwin made a field trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1835. There he collected a giant tortoise, although it was quite small when he met it. Eventually the animal, by now called Harriet, ended up in the Australia Zoo in Queensland, living on until 2006. The great scientist, by contrast, died in 1882 aged 73. Some doubt that Harriet really was Darwin’s tortoise. But we like the story so we’ll choose to believe it. Other opinions are available.

37. America’s founding fathers knew nothing of the dinosaurs

The Founding Fathers led their people in the ultimately successful fight to break with the British Empire: the American War of Independence ended in 1783. But it would be another 59 years before British scientist Richard Owen made his startling 1842 revelation that dinosaurs had existed. So the Founding Fathers had no idea that giant creatures, now extinct, had roamed the Earth in the distant past.

36. The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper the same year teenager Bill Gates started at Lakeside School

In 1967 The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was recognized as a seminal album and is revered by many to this day. It’s been called the soundtrack of the 1960s, a decade of massive social change. In the same year an entirely unknown youngster called Bill Gates started at Lakeside School in Seattle. There he met one Paul Allen and this later led to a certain amount of success. You’ve probably heard of the company the pair founded: Microsoft.

35. Woolly mammoths were around when the Great Pyramids of Giza were built

The three Great Pyramids of Giza were built over the course of about a century some 4,500 years ago. Somewhat battered by desert storms, these magnificent ancient Egyptian monuments are with us still. Sadly, woolly mammoths are not. But they were when the pyramids were built, although not in Egypt. The last known sanctuary of the woolly mammoth was Wrangel Island in the Arctic, where they were still alive as recently as 4,300 years ago.

34. The oldest bristlecone pine tree was a sapling at the end of the Stone Age

Bristlecone pine trees are famous for their astonishing longevity. They can live for thousands of years. But even the experts were stunned by one they found growing in California’s White Mountains in 2012. Analysis showed that this extraordinary tree was 5,065 years old. That means it was a youthful sapling when humans were just emerging from the 2.5-million-year-long Stone Age.

33. The Spanish had been in the Americas for a century before the Pilgrim Fathers settled in Plymouth

If you think the Pilgrim Fathers from England were the first Europeans to arrive in the Americas, think again. The truth is, they were relative latecomers. That’s because Spanish colonizers had arrived in the Caribbean in the 15th century and by 1512 had conquered all of the larger islands. It would be more than another 100 years before English Puritans arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 aboard the Mayflower.

32. Swiss women got the right to vote the same year the U.S. drove a buggy on the Moon

In a triumph for advanced technology, in 1971 men not only landed on the Moon, but for the first time they also drove across its surface. The Apollo 15 mission’s transport was a lunar roving vehicle, more familiarly known as a Moon buggy. So it seems scarcely credible that back on Earth in the same year, there was one European nation that was only just catching up with the 20th century. Swiss men finally decided that the time was right to give women the vote. How very generous of them.

31. The fax was invented the same year as the first full-scale wagon-train traveled the Oregon Trail

The fax machine may be almost entirely redundant today, but nevertheless most of us would probably think of it as a modern technology. Far from it. It turns out that a rudimentary fax machine was developed in the 19th century by a Scotsman. Why are they always Scots? Step forward Alexander Bain, who patented his device in 1843. In that same year, pioneers headed westwards in a full-scale wagon train along the Oregon Trail for the first time.

30. The first London Underground train ran in the same year as the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg

Historians regard the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg as one of the key engagements of the Civil War. After bitter fighting, Union soldiers decisively defeated Confederate General Lee’s attempt to invade the North. The picture in peacetime London in 1863 could hardly have been more different. There, probably the most exciting thing that happened all year was the opening of the world’s first underground railway.

29. The first modern Olympics came in 1896, the same year as radioactivity was discovered

The original Olympic Games of course was an event held by the ancient Greeks. But along came a Roman emperor called Theodosius I – Rome had taken control of Greece – and he banned the games in 393 A.D. What a spoilsport! It was some 1,500 years before the tradition was revived, with the first modern Games being held in Athens in 1896. Where else? That same year saw a momentous modern discovery. French scientist Henri Becquerel identified radioactivity for the first time.

28. Oreos first appeared in the same year as the Titanic sank

The year 1912 was a terrible one for luxury oceangoing liners but a great moment in the history of cookies. Tragically, on her maiden voyage, RMS Titanic met its end after colliding with an iceberg. Better news came in the shape of the invention of Oreos, that sweet snack beloved by millions to this day. In fact it’s the best-selling cookie in the world, chomped down by the citizens of more than 100 nations.

27. Charlie Chaplin was born in the year that the Eiffel Tower was completed

Charlie Chaplin was born in London on January 26, 1887. He went on to become “widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen” according to Encyclopedia Britannica. And who are we to argue with that verdict? Later in the year the ultimate symbol of Paris, France, opened to the public: The Eiffel Tower. You can find convincing photos online claiming to show Chaplin beneath the tower. But they were created by an impersonator. As far as we know, he never visited it.

26. Queen Victoria was born in the year Memphis, Tennessee, was founded

For the good folk of Tennessee, 1819 was undoubtedly an important year. For that was when the great city of Memphis, named after the ancient Egyptian capital, was founded on the banks of the Mississippi. It was also a fairly key year for people in Britain. A new infant entered the world, called Victoria. From 1837 she would reign as queen for 64 years and give her name to an entire era. Only her great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II has sat on the British throne for longer.

25. The Brooklyn Bridge was under construction in the year of Custer’s Last Stand

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge. Builders toiled for 14 years until 1883 before the crossing between Manhattan and Brooklyn was ready for traffic. Various other significant events happened during the project but perhaps the most surprising of all is Custer’s Last Stand. That came at the Battle of Little Big Horn when Cheyenne and Sioux fighters led by Chief Sitting Bull crushed General George Custer’s 7th Cavalry. While some built bridges, others fought bitter battles with Native Americans.

24. Pablo Picasso was born in the year Sherlock Holmes first met Dr. Watson

An important distinction separates Pablo Picasso and Sherlock Holmes. Picasso was real but Holmes, despite the apparent belief of some, was fictional: a creation of British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even so the imaginary detective and the real-life artist did share an important date in their lives. Picasso was born in 1881 in Spain. Holmes first met his perennial sidekick Dr. Watson in the same year in Conan Doyle’s yarn A Study in Scarlet.

23. James Cook reached Australia the same year that Beethoven was born

It was 1770 when British explorer Captain James Cook first sailed into Botany Bay and landed on the coast of Australia. Although he only spent eight days ashore, he staked a claim on the new discovery for the British crown. Of course, the Australian Aboriginals had found Australia thousands of years earlier. That same year saw the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. To the best of our knowledge he never visited Australia. On the other hand he did compose some of the most sublime music the world has ever heard.

22. Coca-Cola first appeared in the same year as The Statue of Liberty

In 1886 President Grover Cleveland dedicated The Statue of Liberty, that archetypal symbol of American values. Many millions of emigrants would sail past the statue on their way to a new life. A second U.S. contribution to the world came in the shape of a new drink, Coca-Cola. According to the company’s website the world’s population now glugs down more than 1.9 billion servings of the brown beverage every day.

21. The first humans arrived in New Zealand around the time Kublai Khan became the Mongol leader

As far as historians can make out, the first humans arrived in New Zealand sometime between 1250 and 1300 A.D. They probably made their way there from other earlier settlements on Polynesian islands. Momentous events were happening elsewhere in the world around the same time. It was the era when Emperor Kublai Khan completed the Mongols’ subjugation of all China.

20. The launch of the Ford Model T automobile coincided with the birth of President Lyndon Johnson

President Lyndon Johnson’s succession to the U.S presidency was overshadowed by tragedy, since it was prompted by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Johnson was 55 when he entered the Oval Office, having been born in 1908. And that year saw another significant event: Henry Ford released his Model T automobile. It was the precursor of mass car ownership in the U.S. By the end of its production run in 1927, 15 million cars had been sold.

19. Chairman Mao was born in the same year the first Ferris wheel was erected

The year 1893 saw the birth of a baby who would go on to be the most famous Chinese person of the 20th century, Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao, as he became universally known, led the Chinese Communist Party from 1949 until his death in 1976. But 1893 had more to offer than just the birth of a baleful communist dictator. An American called George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. built an extraordinary construction. It was of course the world’s first Ferris Wheel.

18. Martin Luther King was born in the year of the Wall Street Crash

There’s little to celebrate about the best-known event of 1929, the Wall Street Crash. It led to years of economic disruption resulting in penury and misery for many Americans. But there was actually a bright moment during that catastrophic year. Martin Luther King Jr. was born. His impact on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s brought hope to many Americans.

17. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in the same year Prince Charles was born

It was in 1948 that two brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in the Californian city of San Bernardino. It was a modest beginning that led to great things. According to the Statista website, in 2019 nearly 39,000 McDonald’s restaurants were serving Big Macs around the world. Another notable 1948 event was the birth of a British prince called Charles. Assuming he outlives his mother Queen Elizabeth II, one day he’ll be King Charles.

16. Fidel Castro came to power the same year Hawaii gained statehood

Hawaiians have cause to view 1959 as a crucial year in their history. For that was when the archipelago in the Caribbean became a fully-fledged state of the union, the 50th. It was a popular move among the islanders. A referendum had come out 93 percent in favor of joining the U.S. A rather different political change convulsed another Caribbean island in 1959. Fidel Castro’s Marxist revolutionaries overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The nation started a new life under communism.

15. The U.S. Army ended flogging the same year serfs in Russia were emancipated

In 1861 two events that can be described as enlightened progress happened in different parts of the world. In America, the U.S. Army ended the practice of punishing ill-disciplined soldiers by flogging them. In Russia, the Tsar issued an order which abolished the institution of serfdom. In effect, serfs had been in thrall to whoever owned the land where they lived. Their rights, such as the ability to move elsewhere, had been severely restricted.

14. Elvis Presley was born in the year that the Hoover Dam was completed

After five years of hard graft by some 21,000 workers the mighty Hoover Dam in Nevada was finally completed in 1935. Standing 726 feet tall, the massive structure incorporates 6.6 million tons of concrete and traps up to 9 trillion gallons of water in Lake Mead. A less monumental but equally famous manifestation entered the world in 1935: Elvis Presley. He might have been hopeless at storing large volumes of water, but on the plus side the King is estimated to have sold more than 1 billion records.

13. Winston Churchill and Harry Houdini were born in the same year

Sir Winston Churchill was born in the splendor of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, in 1874 to an English father and an American mother. Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, in the same year. Churchill led Britain through the grueling ordeal of World War II. Houdini became the most feted escapologist of his era, perhaps of all time. History fails to record any meeting between the two men with such very different talents but a birth date in common.

12. Modern vaccination was invented the year Napoleon married Josephine

The man who introduced the practice of vaccination to the modern world was an English doctor called Edward Jenner. In 1796 he engaged in an extraordinary experiment. He smeared some smallpox discharge on the open wound of an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps. Jenner was able to show that as a result, the youngster had become immune to smallpox. In the same year the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, famously wed Madame Josephine de Beauharnais. The marriage was less of a success than Jenner’s experiment: it was annulled 13 years later.

11. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space the year the Berlin Wall went up

With the Cold War at its height, Soviet Russia stole a march on America by winning the race to send a man into space: the cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin. But there was another development in the communist world in 1961 that was a lot less positive. The rulers of East Germany began building a wall around the edges and through the middle of Berlin that marked the border between the parts they administered, and those controlled by the Allied powers. Allegedly this was to keep the evil capitalists out. Most believed, and later events confirmed, that the true purpose of the wall was to stop citizens decamping from East to West Germany.

10. The first machine-sliced bread went on sale the year Mickey Mouse made his debut

In 1928 a grateful human race was privileged to get what it had apparently needed for millennia but never knew: machine-sliced bread. This was thanks to a gizmo invented by a jeweler from Missouri, one Otto Rohwedder. In even more good news the same year, Walt Disney revealed his master creation to the world: Mickey Mouse. And let’s not forget the cute little rodent’s wife, Minnie, also appeared in the first cartoon, Steamboat Willie. What a year to have been alive!

9. The last Tsar of Russia, Nicolas II, was born the year Ulysses S. Grant was elected president

America was only a few years out of the Civil War in 1868 and having a successful track record as a Unionist general in that conflict still counted for a lot. Sure enough, former military leader Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election of that year on the Republican ticket. Also in 1868 a man destined to be a major world figure was born in imperial Russia. He was to become Nicolas II, the last of the Russian Tsars.

8. Rosa Parks was born in 1913, the year Harriet Tubman died

In a coincidence that in retrospect is laden with meaning, two heroines of the long African-American battle for freedom and equality collided in the year 1913. In that year Harriet Tubman died. She’d been a leading and vigorous campaigner for the abolition of slavery. It marked the same year Rosa Parks was born; you could say that she came into the world just in time to take on Harriet Tubman’s mantle. Parks shot to prominence in 1955 after she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.

7. The Empire State Building opened for business in the year that Nevada legalized gambling and divorce

There can be few more iconic buildings in America than Manhattan’s Empire State Building. It was completed in 1931 and at the time was the tallest building anywhere in the world. In the same year, events in Nevada took a quite different turn. In an effort to improve the dire economic situation of the time, the state legislature elected to legalize both gambling and divorce. In part, the ultimate result was Las Vegas. And ironically enough, that desert city features a facsimile of the Empire State Building.

6. Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon the same year Americans flocked to Woodstock

July 20, 1969, was a massive day for America and the world. For it was then that Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the surface of the Moon. As he said at the time, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But other people in 1969 had their sights set on a different location: Woodstock, New York. As many as 500,000 people gathered there to tune in and drop out while the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin serenaded them.

5. Bikinis first went on sale in the year Dolly Parton was born

Dolly Parton was born in 1946 and certainly has some of the best tunes, along with probably the world’s most extravagant wigs. She’s also worn some spectacular stage outfits in her time. But searching high and low, we’ve been unable to find a shot of her in a two-piece swimsuit. Which is strange, since the year of her birth also marked the introduction of the bikini. We have a Frenchman to thank for that, Louis Réard. There’s a surprise.

4. George Washington became president in the year of the French Revolution

George Washington became the first president of America in 1789. We’re now on our 46th Commander in Chief and most would probably agree that it’s been a roller coaster ride. But we’re still here – as are the French. They had rather a big year in 1789 as well. Indeed, it doesn’t come much bigger than a full-scale revolution, ending in the obliteration of their royal family. Of course Washington was no stranger to revolution himself, having played no small part in ridding America of its allegiance to the British royal family.

3. Microsoft was founded the same year as Jaws was released

The enormous shark in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws first terrified audiences in 1975. It took in more money than any other film ever had at the time. Many believe that the movie singlehandedly created an entirely new cinematic genre, the blockbuster. But Jaws wasn’t the only game in town in 1975. For that was the year Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, which has also had a fairly big impact on the world.

2. Franklin Roosevelt was first elected president the year Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for his first term as president, things weren’t going too well for America. It was the height of the Great Depression. Banks were failing left, right and center, and many millions were out of work. But there was at least one good news story that year. American heroine Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. Departing from Newfoundland, Canada she arrived in the north of Ireland 15 hours later.

1. President John Tyler’s grandson is still alive

Perhaps not the best-known of presidents, John Tyler succeeded President Henry Harrison when he died while in office. Tyler served the remainder of what would have been Harrison’s term until 1845. He died in 1862. So it comes as something of a shock to learn that in 2021, one of his grandsons is still alive. He’s Harrison Tyler, born in 1928. How many people can say they have a grandfather who, like John Tyler, was born in 1790?