20 Historical Events That You Don’t Expect To Have Transpired Simultaneously Within The Same Timeline

Einstein said that time is relative, and if you look back at history it might surprise you to realise that certain events took place at the same time. For example, the last execution by guillotine during the French Revolution took place in 1977, at the same time when George Lucas’ much-acclaimed Star Wars movies first came out. 

#1 *Frozen* came out the same year Mississippi officially abolished slavery.

Image source: ItsGotThatBang, Disney

#2 My favourite that I’ve seen: When Harvard opened, they didn’t have calculus classes because *calculus hadn’t been invented yet.*

Image source: DJBlok, Emily Karakis

#3 Oxford University celebrated its 200th graduating class by the time the Aztec Empire started in Central America.

Image source: LambertonRegistry, Ben Seymour

#4 The last execution by guillotine occurred on September 10th, 1977.

Image source: SleeplessShitposter, Paul Glazzard

The Atari 2600, the first successful home video game console, released the very next day. In a sense, the boundary separating the “era of guillotines” and the “era of video games” is less than 24 hours. It’s basically a fine line with no overlap.

#5

People walked on the moon before we put wheels on a suitcase

Image source: Blythyvxr

#6 In 1922, Betty White and the Ottoman Empire both existed.

Image source: Glade_Runner, Angela George

#7 The last mammoths lived at the time the pyramids were under construction.

Image source: Hopeful_Mecha_Angel, Andrés Dallimonti

#8 I watched the first moon landing with a woman who’d been in Paris for Lindbergh’s first transcontinental flight landing.

Image source: zestyspleen, NASA

Edit: wow this blew up! And my first award!! Trippy, thanks—and I owe it all to Mrs. B.

#9 Nintendo was founded when Jack the Ripper was roaming the streets of London.

Image source: SublimeVibe, Alvaro Reyes

#10

Women in Switzerland got right to vote in 1971 when India was already having a woman prime minister !

Image source: sumidawasi

#11 The Qing Dynasty of China collapsed in 1912, the same year as the Titanic disaster.

Image source: TailsxCream4Eva, Clay Banks

#12 William Shakespeare and Pocahontas were alive at the same time.

Image source: Dabrigstar, Taha

#13 Pablo Picasso died the same year Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” was released.

Image source: PrescottEagle, Beatriz Miller

#14 The Titanic maiden voyage happened the same year as MDMA was created.

Image source: BrianH-84, Wkipedia

#15 The last surviving witness to the Lincoln assassination appeared on the TV game show *I’ve Got a Secret* several weeks before his death in 1954.

Image source: the2belo, Wikipedia

#16

Dmitri Shostakovich (major Russian composer who became huge in the 1920s) attended a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” in London, 1975. He actually loved it and watched it again the next day, claiming he wished he could’ve written something for a rock band.

Image source: guiporto32

#17 Samurai, the fax machine, and Abraham Lincoln all existed at the same time

Image source: An-Ugly-Croissant17, Ryunosuke Kikuno

#18 I always found it strange that Victorian England and the Wild West happened at the same time.

Image source: Latvian_Pete, Abigail Keenan

#19 Dali designed the Chupa Chups lollipop logo.

Image source: botulizard, Mstroeck

#20 Harriet Tubman was alive at the same time as both Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan.

Image source: notasleannotasmean, Kirt Morris

#21 Orville Wright of the Wright brothers lived long enough to see Chuck Yaeger break the sound barrier and travel on an airliner that had a wingspan equal to the distance he covered in his first flight (37m)

Image source: cruiserman_80, Wikipedia