Approximately 2,480 Years: The Building Of The Pyramids At Giza Vs. The Birth Of Cleopatra Cleopatra was born around 69 BCE and became co-ruler of Egypt with her brother in 51 BCE. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she lived more than 2,000 years after Pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, the rulers responsible for building the pyramid complex at Giza between approximately 2575 and 2465 BCE. For perspective, Cleopatra lived closer to the opening of the first Pizza Hut in 1958 than to the Pyramids. 4 Months: The Release Of 'Star Wars' Vs. The Last Use Of The Guillotine Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977. The movie went on to earn nearly $800 million worldwide and started a popular culture phenomenon. Four months later, on September 10, 1977, in Marseilles, France, convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi became the last person executed by guillotine. 58 Years: Man's First Motorized Flight Vs. First Manned Spaceflight On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully carried out the first controlled, sustained flight of a motorized aircraft. Their machine reached a speed of 34 miles per hour, traveled 120 feet, and was in the air for 12 seconds. Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961. He climbed aboard a Soviet Vostok spacecraft and spent 108 minutes circling the Earth. 148 Years: When The 13th Amendment Went To The States For Ratification Vs. When The Last US State Ratified It The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and sent to the states for ratification. On December 6, 1865, when Georgia ratified the amendment, it became law - officially abolishing slavery in the US. At the time, Mississippi rejected the amendment, but finally passed it in 1995. Miscommunication with federal officials, however, kept it from becoming official until 2013. The realization that Mississippi had yet to officially ratify the amendment was the result of two colleagues watching Lincoln. Ranjan Batra and Ken Sullivan saw the movie, got curious about the history of the amendment itself, and discovered the oversight. From there, according to Batra, "[Ken] had the connections and his father knew someone who had actually written the bill for ratification in Mississippi and he knew exactly where to find it." Soon after, Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman sent the paperwork to the appropriate federal officials. 400+ Years: The First Use Of Gunpowder Technology In China Vs. The Arrival Of Gunpowder Technology In Europe Gunpowder was developed in China c. 850 CE, and was essentially the result of an experiment conducted by alchemists. Instead of the life-sustaining elixirs they hoped for, the alchemists created a combustible powder that would change the world. It wasn't until the 13th century, however, that gunpowder was introduced into Europe. One of the earliest mentions of it in the West comes from a work by Roger Bacon in 1267. 19 Months: The Start Of The Pony Express Vs. The End Of The Pony Express The first Pony Express rider left St. Joseph, MO on April 3, 1860. The letter he carried was passed along a relay system, ultimately arriving at its destination of Sacramento, CA, 10 days later. The final mail piece to ride along the Pony Express reached its destination in November 1861. The courier system would survive far longer in the popular consciousness than it did in actual service, a result of Congress dragging its feet on offering the Pony Express a contract. When it finally came through, the amount was too low to enable the system to continue. 97 Years: First Telephone Call Vs. First Cellular Phone Call The first telephone call was by Alexander Graham Bell in March 1876. When he spoke to his assistant in another room, Bell said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you." The device Bell used was large and somewhat clunky, but less than 100 years later, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first call on a handheld cellular phone. He later revealed that, when he called his rival Joel Engel on April 3, 1973, "there was silence at the other end of the line." For the sake of comparison, the first iPhone debuted in 2007. As another significant technology timespan, the time between the first handheld cellular and the iPhone was 34 years. 78 Years: The Invention Of Dynamite Vs. The First Test Of A Nuclear Device In 1867, Swedish physicist Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. He'd been working with nitroglycerin (invented by Ascanio Sobrero in 1812) in his lab and found a way to pack it into a container and detonate it with a blasting cap. Fewer than 80 years later, the US conducted its first test of a nuclear device in New Mexico. In July 1945, a plutonium device dropped from a tower during what was dubbed the "Trinity Test." When the bomb detonated, it released power, debris, and heat equivalent to between 15,000-20,000 tons of TNT. 65 Years: The First Camera Vs. The First Motion Picture Camera Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a Frenchman born in 1765, is considered a pioneer in early photography. He experimented with light and various chemicals to create permanent images on plates as early as 1825 through a process called heliography. In 1839, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre introduced his own process called daguerreotype. Richard Leach Maddox came up with the idea for gelatin plates to produce "instant" images during the 1870s. In 1888, George Eastman sold the first Kodak camera. The first moving picture camera, a kinetograph, essentially captured images on a strip of film as it moved through the device. Thomas Edison and William Dickson developed the kinetograph in 1890, and Edison patented it in 1897. 129 Years: The Introduction Of Gas-Powered Automobiles Vs. Cars On Autopilot Carl Benz of Germany is credited with obtaining the first patent for a "vehicle powered by a gas engine" in 1886. He debuted his "motor car" that same year. As automobiles were designed and redesigned time and again through subsequent decades, companies looked for ways to make driving easier. In 2015, Tesla took driving out of the equation (to some extent) with the introduction of its Autopilot system. 30 Years: The Founding Of Harvard Vs. The 'Invention' Of Calculus When Harvard was established by the "Great and General Court of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" in 1636, it became the first college in colonial America. It didn't offer calculus, however, because the discipline hadn't been "invented" in the Western world yet - it began in India. Both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz came up with calculus during the late 17th century, although the former is first credited with "inventing" it during the 1660s. Leibnitz is believed to have done so during the 1670s. Either way, it wasn't known in the West until at least 30 years after Harvard was established. 29 Years: The First Video Game Vs. The First Use Of The Term 'Virtual Reality' William Higinbotham, an American-born physicist, is credited with inventing the first video game in 1958. Called "Tennis for Two," the electronic table-tennis game he developed used controllers linked to an analog computer. Players viewed their experience on an oscilloscope screen, akin to that found in a black-and-white television. While many people made efforts to create a virtual reality experience throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jaron Lanier is believed to have coined the phrase "virtual reality" in 1987. He used the term to describe the headset and gloves developed by his company, VPL Research, Inc. 101 Years: First Automated Vending Machine Vs. First Self-Checkout Station As early as the 1st century CE, Greek inventor and mathematician Hero of Alexandria invented the first coin-operated vending machine. It dispensed holy water once a coin landed on a lever, tilting it to pour out the liquid. It wasn't until 1883 that Percival Everitt developed the first automated vending machine. Introduced in London, the invention dispensed postcards and was later adapted to provide envelopes and paper as well. Self-service made its way to retail outlets, specifically grocery stores, during the mid-1980s. David Humble filed a patent for a "self-service distribution system" in 1984. The Fax Machine Was Invented The Same Year The First Wagon Crossed the Oregon Trail (1843) It sounds crazy, but it's true: RedditFed points out that Scottish inventor Alexander Bain received the patent for the “Electric Printing Telegraph” – the granddaddy of the modern fax machine – on May 27, 1843. That same year, in what’s now known as the “Great Migration of 1843,” about 1,000 emigrants headed to Oregon via wagon train on the Oregon Trail. NASA Was Exploring Space By The Time Scientists Could Agree On Plate Tectonics (1965) To his credit, Alfred Wegener first proposed his theory of continental drift in 1912. However, the scientific community basically laughed him off the map, and it wasn't until the publication of two papers, one in 1965 and one in 1967, that the theory of plate tectonics was refined and fully accepted in the scientific community. At the same time, NASA was winding down its Gemini Program, which not only launched crafts into space but also helped set the stage for the Apollo missions that would result in manned lunar landings. That Program concluded in 1966, meaning scientists were exploring space before we had agreed upon what was going on in the earth beneath their feet. Woolly Mammoths Were Still Alive While Egyptians Were Building The Pyramids (2660 BCE) Ice Age might get a few more sequels: a small population 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 constructed between 2667 and 2648 BCE, meaning that yes, as Redditor LastKill stated, there were actually woolly mammoths alive and well when the Great Pyramids were being built. You Could Take The London Underground To The Last Public Hanging In The UK (1868) Two Redditors (TheFairyGuineaPig and Iamreeve) drew readers' attention to this startling fact: the last public hanging in the UK took place on May 26, 1868, when Michael Barrett was executed in front of a crowd of two thousand people outside the walls of Newgate Prison in London. The Barbican London Underground station was built in 1865 (as Aldersgate Street) and is only a 10-minute walk from Newgate Prison (now the Central Criminal Court), according to Google Maps. This means it was entirely possible that Londoners took the tube to watch a hanging. Prisoners Arrived At Auschwitz Just Days After McDonald's Was Founded (1940) Most people connect McDonald’s with post-WWII America – and it's true that the chain really took off at that time – but brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald actually opened the first McDonald’s restaurant on May 15, 1940, in San Bernardino, CA. Reddit user Shieee points out that just five days later, the first concentration camp prisoners arrived at Auschwitz. The Ottoman Empire Existed The Second To Last Time The Chicago Cubs Won The World Series (1908) Yep: the penultimate time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series was in 1908. That’s 10 years before the Ottomans were defeated in World War I and 14 years before the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. This means the Cubs’ second-to-last big win is older than Turkey. Nintendo Was Founded When Jack the Ripper Was Still On The Loose (1889) Japanese gaming giant Nintendo was founded on September 23, 1889, originally producing handmade playing cards called hanafuda. This means the company behind Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Kirby, and that copy of Wii Sports gathering dust in your parent’s basement was actually contemporaneous with the legendary London serial killer Jack the Ripper. Though 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. The identity of Jack the Ripper is still unknown. Reddit user nliausacmmv made this connection with an assist from thundernewt. By The Time The Pilgrims Made It To Plymouth Rock, There Was A 'Palace of the Governors' In New Mexico In the basic narrative of the formation of the United States that you get in school, the story begins with the hardy, faithful Pilgrims boarding their ships in England and sailing until they hit Plymouth Rock, MA. While the Pilgrims were a pretty early group of settlers to New England (they landed in 1620), they were in no way the first group to set up shop in the would-be US of A. In fact, Spanish explorers and conquistadors had been establishing themselves in the Southwest for a century before the Pilgrims arrived, and, by 1610, they had built the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe where they had a full-on settlement. So all those stories of harsh winters, Native American raids, and barely surviving up North? They should've gone on down to old Santa Fe. Star Wars Came Out The Same Year As The Last Guillotine Execution In France (1977) Hamida "Pimp Killer" Djandoubi was beheaded via guillotine in France on September 10, 1977, for the torture and murder of a 21-year-old woman. It was the last time France executed anybody using any method – François Mitterrand abolished the practice in 1981. This means that, as Redditor LastKill highlights, in the same year a man in a First World country was getting his head chopped off by the state, kids across the globe were lining up to see Star Wars, which debuted in the U.S. on May 25, 1977, and in the UK on December 27, 1977.