11 Unexpected Facts That Will Challenge Your Perception of Time

Some events leave such a deep imprint in history and culture that they become the markers of the era. Some of them seem very recent, and others don’t. But if you look at them from a different angle and compare them to each other, you will find out some facts that will change your perception of time.

We at Bright Side love learning new things, especially when it comes to phenomena we’ve known about for a long time.

The last Harry Potter book was released the same year the iPhone first appeared.

In 2007, fans of the teenage wizard were waiting for the final book in the series. That same year, Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone to the world.

There were only 58 years between the first plane flight and the first space flight.

In 1903, the Wright Brothers took the first flight on a plane with an engine. But less than 60 years later, the first spaceship was launched with Yuri Gagarin on it.

There’s a 35-year-long gap between the creation of the Internet and the invention of Facebook.

In 1969, scientists created the ARPANET network that was operating the way the modern Internet does. And only 35 years later, Mark Zuckerberg founded the biggest social media network in the world.

114 years passed from the moment the first film was shown to when the film, Avatar, was released.

The famous film by the Lumière brothers was shown to the world in 1895, and it made a huge impression on everyone that saw it. 114 years later, James Cameron showed Avatar to the world, and it became the highest-grossing film of the time for 10 years.

Oxford University was founded before the Aztec Empire.

The exact date of when one of the oldest universities in the world was founded is unknown. But it was discovered that there were students that had been educated at Oxford in 1096. The Aztecs founded their empire in the territory of modern Mexico 332 years later, in 1428.

First the train was founded, and then the bicycle.

The first locomotive was created in 1802 by Richard Trevithick. And the first bicycle similar to the modern ones appeared only in 1885.

The Eiffel Tower and The Starry Night appeared in the same year.

The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. It was designed as a temporary construction. Nobody could even imagine that it would become one of the most recognized symbols in the world.

That same year, Vincent van Gogh made one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Christopher Lee was born during the times of the Ottoman Empire.

The famous British actor, Christopher Lee, famous for the role of Saruman, was born on May 27, 1922. When he was born, the Ottoman Empire still existed. It disappeared 5 months later.

Harvard already existed, and nobody knew anything about Newton and his laws.

The prestigious Harvard University is one of the oldest academic institutions in the US. It was founded on September 8, 1636. One of the most famous scientists in the world, Isaac Newton, was born 6 years after the university was founded.

Charlie Chaplin and Eminem are contemporaries.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, also known as Eminem, was born in 1972. That same year, one of the most famous actors of all time, Charlie Chaplin, got his second Oscar award.

The people born on December 31, 2000, and January 1, 2001, were born in different millennia.

The last day of 2000 was at the end of the twentieth century and the end of the second millennium of our era. And January 1, 2001, was the start of the twenty-first century and the third millennium. The children that were born in the last minutes of 2000 and the first minutes of 2001 were born not only in different centuries but also in different millennia.

What amazed you the most in this article? Maybe you have your own examples of how deceptive time can be!