My grandfather was born in 1904, and died two days before the moon landing. Missed them both by that much!
Benz automobiles with internal combustrion engines were already on the road when the independent kingdoms of Hawaii and Madagascar were first colonized by European powers.
In two years, Wil Wheaton will be the same age that Patrick Stewart was in the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot.
Several unexpected historical figures have passed through or lived in Panama.
Although the President most associated with Panama is Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses Grant was here before he was President. Grant crossed the isthmus in 1852 when his regiment was sent to California.
Paul Gauguin is most associated with Tahiti and the South Pacific, but his first stay on a tropical island was on Taboga in Panama in 1887 when he worked on the French effort to build a canal.
And there were still moas running around in New Zealand and Elephant Birds in Madagascar when the Magna Carta was signed.
Alaska was acquired in 1867 by the United States from the Russian Empire on one day but on different dates: Russia didn’t convert to the Gregorian Calendar for another 51 years, in 1918.
Which explains why the Russians arrived 12 days late to the 1908 Olympics. Wrong calendar.
The world’s oldest still-active brewery, Weinstephaner, began the same year Macbeth began his rule of Scotland – 1040,
Cincinnati is an older city than Boston.
Cincy was incorporated in 1819, Boston in 1822.
(What took so long for Boston to be incorporated?)
The original painting was destroyed in a bombing raid on Germany in 1942. The one you see today is a replica.
The largest city by inhabitants in what is now the continental United States ever to have existed prior to the American Revolution was (at least according to some estimates) the pre-Columbian native American city of Cahokia, in what is now Illinois.
It was, again according to estimates, surpassed in population by Philadelphia in the 1780s.
When Neil Armstrong stepped out of that capsule I was watching with my maternal grandparents. Grandpa was born in October of 1900, and lived to see people walking on the moon. Grandma didn’t quite make it, she was born one year to the day after the flight at Kitty Hawk. But she lived to vote in 22 presidential elections, voting from 1928 to 2012, and was just short of her 108th birthday when she died. Talk about seeing a lot of change!
Sante Fe, New Mexico is older than both. It was founded in 1610. (Boston was founded in 1630.)
Reading the Wikipedia article, it was a town until then. It was only in that year that it was incorporated as a city.
Adams was considerably older than Jefferson – he was the longest-lived ex-president until late 2001.
Our last four presidents have birthdays that fall within 11 weeks of each other, three of them having been born in the same year.
For someone my age it’s rare to have a grandfather as old as mine. He was born in 1882 and died in 1976 when I was 9. He was born before the first automobile and was an adult before cars became common. He never believed the moon landings were real but we gave him a pass because he had lived through everything.
Bean Town?
And three of the four (Bush Sr.*, Clinton, and Obama) are left-handed!
Bush, Sr., played 1st base for Yale* while in college. Although a lefty, he batted right. Quite unusual. The only other person I can think of who matches this is Rickey Henderson.
**As a 1st baseman at Yale, Bush met Babe Ruth in a ceremony to receive a manuscript of the Babe’s biography.
No American President has been an only child.
The Espionage Act of 1917 had some weird consequences. A film maker was arrested for making a movie that put our allies, Great Britain, in a bad light. This resulted in a court case with a most unfortunate title, United States v. Spirit of '76.
What was it doing in Germany?