Historical Events You Won't Believe Happened at the Same Time

It sounds crazy, but it's true:RedditFedRedditFed points out that Scottish inventor Alexander Bain got the patent for the “Electric Printing Telegraph” – the ancestor of the modern fax machine – on May 27, 1843. That same year, in what is now the “Great Migration of 1843about 1,000 emigrants headed to Oregon via wagon train on the Oregon Trail.

To his credit,Alfred Wegenerfirst proposed his theory of continental drift in 1912. The scientific community mostly ignored him. Only after two papers, one in 1965 and one in 1967, did the theory of plate tectonics get refined and accepted by scientists. At the same time, NASA stopped its Gemini Program.the theory of plate tectonicswas refined and fully accepted in the scientific community. NASA also wound down its Gemini Program.Gemini Program, which launched crafts into space and set the stage for the Apollo missions that led to manned lunar landings.

That Program ended in 1966. Scientists explored space before they agreed on what happened under their feet.

Ice Agemight get more sequels: a small group of woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island—a Delaware-sized island about 90 miles off the coast of far eastern Siberia.until about 1650 BCE. The oldest of the so-called “Great Pyramids” in Egypt was built between2667 and 2648 BCE, so yes, as Redditor LastKillstated, woolly mammoths were alive and well when the Great Pyramids were being built.

Two Redditors (TheFairyGuineaPig and Iamreeve) drew readers' attention to this startling fact: the last public hanging in the UK happened on May 26, 1868, whenMichael Barrettwas executed in front of two thousand people outside Newgate Prison walls in London.

The BarbicanLondon Underground station opened in 1865 (as Aldersgate Street). It is a ten-minute walk from Newgate Prison (now the Central Criminal Court), according to Google Maps. Londoners could take the tube to watch a hanging.

People link McDonald’s to post-WWII America, and the chain grew then. However, Richard and Maurice McDonald opened thefirst McDonald’s restauranton May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, CA.Reddit userShieeearrived at Auschwitzarrived at Auschwitz.

Yep: the penultimate time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series was in 1908.That is10 yearsbefore the Ottomans were defeated in World War Iand 14 years before the Ottoman Empire dissolved. The Cubs’ second-to-last major win predatesTurkey.

Japanese gaming giant Nintendowas founded on September 23, 1889, producing handmade playing cards calledhanafuda.This means the company behind Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Kirby, and that copy ofWii Sportsgathering dust in your parent’s basement was at the same time as the legendary London serial killerJack the RipperThough all the murders we now attribute to the killer were committed in 1888, in September 1889, Londoners still thought Jack was on the loose: he was a suspect in the murder of unidentified woman – called “The Pinchin Street Torso” because all they found was her torso – just a few weeks before Nintendo was founded.

Jack the Ripper's identity remains unknown. Reddit user nliausacmmv made this connection with an assist from thundernewt.nliausacmmvnliausacmmv made this connection with an assist from thundernewt.thundernewt.

School teaches the United States' formation starts with hardy Pilgrims boarding ships in England. They sailed to Plymouth Rock, MA. These Pilgrims, early New England settlers (landing in 1620), were not the first in the US. Spanish explorers and conquistadors had settled the Southwest for a century before the Pilgrims arrived.by 1610, they built the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, establishing a full settlement.

So, all those stories of harsh winters, Native American raids, and barely surviving up North? They should have gone to old Santa Fe.

Hamida “Pimp Killer” DjandoubiA 21-year-old woman was beheaded by guillotine in France on September 10, 1977, for torture and murder. This marked the last time France used execution methods; François Mitterrand ended this practice in 1981. This means that, as Redditor LastKill highlights, kids globally watched this event.LastKillLastKill highlights that in the same year a man in a First World country faced state execution, kids across the globe lined up to see.Star Wars, which debuted in the U.S. on May 25, 1977, and in the UK on December 27, 1977.

Women in Switzerlandcouldn’t vote until 1971, largely because Switzerland requires national referendums for constitutional change, and the only people that could vote in those referendums at the time were men. That’s 65 years after Finland became the first European country to grant women the right to vote and 51 years after America made it happen. Speaking of America: in 1971, the US was up on the moon driving a “moon buggy” around.moon buggyaround.

Men drove the moon buggy, but this contrast is shocking (which Redditor fasterplastercaster highlighted), especially given Switzerland’s status as a progressive wonderland.fasterplastercasterfasterplastercaster

Reddit user ampellangampellangampellang drew an odd parallel: when Microsoftwas foundedby Paul Allen and Bill Gates in April 1975, Spain was still ruled by fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who “presided over a regime of state terror and national brainwashing through the controlled media and the state education system,”according to the BBC.

Unlike Germany or Italy, Spain did not undergo a “denazification process” after WWII. Fascist politics continued until early home computing.

Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright invented powered flight. Orville lived when atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Wilbur died of typhoid fever in 1912, but Orville lived long enough to give an interview.Orville Wright gave an interview.Orville expressed sadness over WWII bombers' destruction: “No, I don't have any regrets about my part in the airplane invention, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused.” A thread started byColor blindness.showed this strange and sad split.

The year the Titanic sank, Reddit userSobeita.Scientists in Germany first made MDMA (3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine), known as Ecstasy. “possibly to suppress appetite. Merck patented it the next year butchose not to market it.

Historians place 1428 as the start of theThe Aztec Empire., which ruled the Valley of Mexico until 1521. Oxford University in England is hundreds of years older than the Aztecs, RedditorLastKill.brought this to light.Oxford’s website says, “teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and grew fast from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from the University of Paris.”

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917), the Wild West showman, lived through most of WWI near death. This means the famous cowboy, soldier, and Pony Express rider likely heard about new German Zeppelins bombing Paris in January 1916German Zeppelins bombed Paris in January 1916.This happened a year before his death.

This seems odd because Cody is linked to gun duels and Native Americans. WWI involves technological advances and the start of weapons of mass destruction on the battlefield.