History on the Timeline
The moments that shaped the world, from antiquity to now. Here’s a taste of the History pack — 143 verified moments and counting.
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That’s Whensly — a new daily puzzle of real moments on the timeline.
Play today’s puzzle — free on the App Store- 1215📜 King John of England seals Magna Carta at Runnymede, limiting royal power and promising justice to his barons.
- 1513🌊 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, from a peak in Panama, becomes the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean.
- 1610🔭 Galileo Galilei spots four points of light beside Jupiter, soon recognizing them as moons orbiting another planet.
- 1648🤝 European powers sign the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years' War and reshaping the continent.
- 1773🧊 Captain James Cook's Resolution becomes the first ship known to cross the Antarctic Circle into far southern waters.
- 1783🎈 Pilâtre de Rozier and d'Arlandes rise over Paris in the Montgolfier brothers' balloon, the first crewed free flight.
- 1789📜 France's National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
- 1802🏔️ Alexander von Humboldt climbs high on Chimborazo, setting an altitude record and first describing altitude sickness.
- 1824🎼 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with its choral Ode to Joy, premieres in Vienna as the deaf composer looks on.
- 1844📡 Samuel Morse taps out "What hath God wrought" to Baltimore, the first long-distance telegraph message.
- 1846🩺 At Massachusetts General Hospital, William Morton publicly demonstrates ether anesthesia as a surgeon operates painlessly.
- 1859🐢 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, setting out evolution by natural selection.
- 1863🚑 Five Genevans led by Henry Dunant form the International Committee of the Red Cross to aid wounded soldiers.
- 1872🏛️ The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens to the public in a rented Fifth Avenue building in New York City.
- 1876📞 Alexander Graham Bell receives the U.S. patent for the telephone, covering transmitting speech by wire.
- 1885🧪 Louis Pasteur administers his rabies vaccine to young Joseph Meister, who survives a rabid dog's bite.
- 1886🥤 Pharmacist John Pemberton's new fountain drink Coca-Cola is first served by the glass at a pharmacy in Atlanta.
- 1893🗳️ New Zealand's governor signs the Electoral Act, making it the first self-governing nation where women may vote.
- 1895🩻 Wilhelm Röntgen detects a mysterious penetrating radiation he names X-rays, photographing the bones of a hand.
- 1900🤿 The U.S. Navy commissions USS Holland, its first submarine, able to run submerged on electric power.
- 1907🎉 A glowing illuminated ball descends over Times Square for the first time, ushering in the new year.
- 1913🩰 Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris, its radical score causing an uproar in the audience.
- 1914🚢 The steamship Ancon makes the first official transit of the Panama Canal, joining the Atlantic and Pacific.
- 1924📬 The U.S. Post Office launches the first scheduled coast-to-coast day-and-night airmail service across the continent.
- 1926🚀 Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket from a farm in Auburn, Massachusetts.
- 1928🧫 Alexander Fleming notices mold killing bacteria in a petri dish, discovering penicillin, the first antibiotic.
- 1930⚽ The first FIFA World Cup kicks off in Montevideo, Uruguay, opening international football's premier tournament.
- 1932🌉 The Sydney Harbour Bridge is formally opened, linking the city's shores with its great steel arch.
- 1936📺 The BBC launches the world's first regular public high-definition television service from Alexandra Palace.
- 1945🏛️ Delegates from fifty nations sign the United Nations Charter in San Francisco, founding the postwar peace body.
- 1947🗽 India becomes independent as Jawaharlal Nehru takes office, ending two centuries of British rule at midnight.
- 1949✈️ The B-50 Lucky Lady II lands in Texas, completing the first nonstop flight around the world with aerial refueling.
- 1953🫀 John Gibbon performs the first successful open-heart surgery using his heart-lung machine, repairing Cecelia Bavolek's heart.
- 1955💉 Scientists announce in Ann Arbor that Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is safe, effective, and potent.
- 1957🛰️ The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
- 1959🌀 Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public in New York City.
- 1962🛒 Sam Walton opens the first Walmart discount store in Rogers, Arkansas, seeding a global retail empire.
- 1965🏛️ Workers set the final keystone of St. Louis's Gateway Arch, completing the tallest monument in the United States.
- 1969🎵 The Beatles release Abbey Road in the United Kingdom, the last album the band recorded together.
- 1971💷 Britain and Ireland switch to decimal currency on Decimal Day, dividing the pound into one hundred new pence.
Think you can put these in order?
That’s Whensly — a new daily puzzle of real moments on the timeline.
Play today’s puzzle — free on the App Store