Timespan Quirks
Not a quiz but some of these are surprising
1. Cleopatra’s reign, 51-30BC, was closer to the present day than to the building of the Great Pyramid, c. 2560BC.
2. Horatia Nelson, the daughter of Lord Nelson who saw wooden ships defend Britain, could have met Winston Churchill, who led the country in a war in which nuclear bombs were used.
3. The siege of Mafeking in 1899 was closer to the year of my birth, 1946, than I am now.
4. Irene Triplett was still collecting her US Civil War widow’s pension last year.
5. Nintendo was founded the same year that Vincent Van Gogh painted The Starry Night: 1889.
6. Tyrannosaurus, 66-68m years ago, was closer to T Rex, the band, than to Stegosaurus, 150m years ago.
7. The Rolling Stones’ first single, “Come On”, 1963, was closer to Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Liberal government, 1905-08, than to the present day.
8. The 1975 EEC referendum was closer to the end of the First World War than the 2016 EU referendum was to the end of the Second World War.
9. When the first Star Wars film came out in 1977, the French were still using the guillotine: the last execution was that year.
10. The Berlin Wall has been down for longer than it was up, 28 years from 1961 to 1989.
1. Cleopatra’s reign, 51-30BC, was closer to the present day than to the building of the Great Pyramid, c. 2560BC.
2. Horatia Nelson, the daughter of Lord Nelson who saw wooden ships defend Britain, could have met Winston Churchill, who led the country in a war in which nuclear bombs were used.
3. The siege of Mafeking in 1899 was closer to the year of my birth, 1946, than I am now.
4. Irene Triplett was still collecting her US Civil War widow’s pension last year.
5. Nintendo was founded the same year that Vincent Van Gogh painted The Starry Night: 1889.
6. Tyrannosaurus, 66-68m years ago, was closer to T Rex, the band, than to Stegosaurus, 150m years ago.
7. The Rolling Stones’ first single, “Come On”, 1963, was closer to Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Liberal government, 1905-08, than to the present day.
8. The 1975 EEC referendum was closer to the end of the First World War than the 2016 EU referendum was to the end of the Second World War.
9. When the first Star Wars film came out in 1977, the French were still using the guillotine: the last execution was that year.
10. The Berlin Wall has been down for longer than it was up, 28 years from 1961 to 1989.
