13 Timeline Facts That Make Us Marvel At The Concept Of Time Itself

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.