12 Events That Happened Closer Together Than You Think
History is full of mind-bending overlaps that reveal just how strangely close some of the world’s most iconic events, inventions, and lives really were.
- Alyana Aguja
- 4 min read
History tends to sound like a tidily sequenced timeline, but numerous world-altering events and legendary figures were much closer together than we realize. From Harvard existing before calculus to guillotines still being used in the Star Wars universe, these convergences trouble our conception of historical distance. By revealing these astonishing intersections, we develop a richer and more textured view of the past.
1. Harvard University existed prior to the time calculus was invented (1636 vs. 1684)
Image from Harvard University
Harvard admitted its first students in 1636, about 50 years before Newton and Leibniz simultaneously formalized calculus. Early Harvard students were taught mathematics without one of the most basic tools of contemporary science, which implies that America’s oldest university dates back before one of the pillars of contemporary math.
2. The final guillotine execution in France occurred after the initial Star Wars film (1977 vs. 1977)
Image from Britannica
Star Wars: A New Hope was released in May 1977, and it captured the imaginations of people all over the world. Only four months later, France guillotined Hamida Djandoubi — the last legal use of the machine. It wasn’t until 1981 that France legally abolished the death penalty.
3. The fax machine was invented the same year that the first wagon train departed for Oregon (1843)
Image from Wikipedia
As pioneers prepared to travel over wild country in covered wagons, Scottish inventor Alexander Bain invented the first fax machine. One frontier was technological, the other geographical. This is a reminder that progress tends to move ahead in more than one direction at a time.
4. Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. were both born in 1929
Image from Wikipedia
Despite their lives and struggles being continents apart, both were born in 1929. Anne Frank perished in a concentration camp in 1945, while MLK emerged as an international symbol of civil rights in the 1960s. It’s remarkable to consider they were contemporaries, molded by the same tumultuous century.
5. Nintendo was established the same year Jack the Ripper terrorized London (1889)
Image from Wikipedia
As Victorian England was gripped with terror at the notoriety of the Ripper killings, a tiny firm in Japan started making handmade playing cards. That firm was Nintendo, today’s gaming giant. Its transformation from 19th-century card games to Super Mario is nothing short of miraculous.
6. The Eiffel Tower was finished during the year that Van Gogh painted Starry Night (1889)
Image from Wikipedia
Two beauty icons — one artistic, one architectural — entered the world simultaneously. As Paris was partying with modern engineering in the form of the Eiffel Tower, Van Gogh was in a French asylum, pouring his agony into one of the most cherished paintings ever made. It’s a stark comparison of two distinctly different visions of art.
7. Pablo Picasso was still around when Star Trek first aired (1966)
Image from Wikipedia
While Picasso himself is usually linked to early modernism in the 20th century, he lived until 1973. That means he might have turned on the TV and witnessed Star Trek’s original run. The father of Cubism and the captain of the USS Enterprise trod the Earth simultaneously.
8. The Ottoman Empire still existed when the Titanic sank (1912)
Image from ThoughtCo
When the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, the Ottoman Empire was also a powerful empire in the Middle East. It would not dissolve until the conclusion of World War I in 1922, so people who traveled on the Titanic were contemporaries of a centuries-old empire.
9. The Wright brothers’ initial flight and the landing on the moon were just 66 years apart (1903–1969)
Image from National Aviation Heritage Area
In 1903, the Wright brothers launched a wooden glider for only 12 seconds. In 1969, mankind had covered almost 240,000 miles to set foot on the moon. That bound from sand dunes to moon dust took place in more than one human life.
10. John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, has surviving grandchildren today (2025)
Image from Wikipedia
Tyler was born in 1790 and became president in 1841. Because he had a series of extremely late-in-life pregnancies, his grandchildren were born in the 1920s and are still alive as of 2025. That leaves only two generations between George Washington’s time and our own.
11. Oxford University existed before the Aztec Empire (1096 vs. 1325)
Image from Britannica
Oxford started to educate students in the 11th century, long before Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, existed. As Mesoamerican civilizations were just beginning, English scholars were arguing about Aristotle. It’s a reminder that “ancient” is relative and based on your location.
12. The Berlin Wall came down the same year Taylor Swift was born (1989)
Image from Wikipedia
In 1989, the Cold War’s most iconic symbol collapsed in Berlin, and a worldwide pop sensation was born in Pennsylvania. One signalled the end of an era, and the other would shape the next generation’s music. History does not always take time out for celebrity birth notices.