8 Bizarre Things You Wouldn’t Believe Happened at the Same Time

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History is downright strange. Anyone who says differently has never dug into the subject. Sadly, schools often teach it in ways that make it seem like a boring recitation of dates and the names of stuffy old men, but the past was not a snooze fest. It was filled with excitement, innovation, courage, fear and unexpected events. Some of the greatest moments in history were so inexplicable that it seems like they could only have occurred through divine intervention. Such moments are inspiring and fascinating. Then, there are those baffling events that are just plain weird.

Sometimes an event is baffling not because it was in and of itself strange but because the timing or location made no sense. This is especially true when people look back through history and observe when certain things happened. The fact that certain events were contemporaneous can break a person’s brain and leave them questioning their entire perspective of time. Such is the case with these eight bizarre events that no one would believe happened at the same time if there was not proof.

Woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth when the Egyptians build the pyramids.

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The pyramids of Egypt are one of the best known landmarks in the world. They are the subject of dozens of scholarly studies, archaeological research labs and tourist photographs alike. The massive landmarks are synonymous with both the nation of Egypt and ancient history. Most people, however, probably do not realize quite how ancient.

It is one thing to hear that the pyramids are thousands of years old. It is another to realize what creatures still walked the earth when the Egyptians were moving the massive stones. Archaeologists estimate that the pyramids were constructed around 2660 B.C. While stonemasons were busy in Africa, however, humans across the ocean were hunting one of the most distinctive creatures ever discovered, the woolly mammoth. Baffling though it is to read, the pyramids were built when woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth, and humans in colder climates were busy dodging saber-toothed tigers.

The East Roman Empire survived until 30 years before Columbus reached America.

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The Roman Empire is one of the greatest to ever spread across the Earth. It is certainly one of the best known and remains massively influential until this day. Modern roads are based on the size of ancient Roman roads. As a result, everything that is transported by road, including modern missiles, is based on the size of Roman roads.

For all its influence, Rome is seen as ancient history. The last of the Roman Empire, however, did not truly fall until much later than is normally imagined. The Western Roman Empire fell centuries before the Eastern Roman Empire, so the fall of Rome was, technically, long ago. That said, the Eastern Roman Empire held out around the rim of the Mediterranean until the Siege of Trebizond in 1461. Just over 30 years later, Christopher Columbus landed in the West Indies. So, living Romans would have heard about the discovery of the New World.

The fax machine was patented the same year the Oregon Trail was completed.

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The fax machine is undoubtedly modern. Email and scanned documents have made it less essential than it was even 10 years ago, and some would consider faxes to be somewhat outdated. That said, there is no doubt the fax belongs to the modern era. Before that, the idea of sending documents electronically was absurd.

The impossibility of the feat did not stop Alexander Bain from working on chemical and mechanical devices more than a century before Xerox’s commercialized modern fax machine became both the standard for fax machines and commonplace in offices. In 1843, Bain patented his “Electric Printing Telegraph.” That same year, the first wagon train completed the Oregon Trail and made the famous pathway passable for other covered wagons. The trail had been used prior to 1843, but it was not until 1843 that the crossing was feasible for covered wagons.

Spectators took the London Underground to the last public hanging.

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Public executions are an attempt to rule by fear and force. They have been phased out of every modern country on Earth and are seen as being a thing of the uncivilized past. There are a few countries that continue the barbaric practice, but there are no free nations that continue to do so. Beyond those few exceptions, public executions are mentally relegated to medieval times and the colonial era. Public hangings belong in the same mental sphere as covered wagons and candlelight. Spectators, however, likely took the Tube to the last public hanging in the United Kingdom. In fact, people probably took the Tube repeatedly to see hangings before public executions ended. The last public hanging in the U.K. was that of mass murderer Fenian Michael Barrett in May 1868. By the time of his execution, the London Underground, now a staple of modern London, had been in use for almost three years.

Modern Germany is only a year older than Yellowstone National Park.

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Whether people realize it or not, subconsciously most people expect world maps to remain the same. The creation of a new country or merging of several states continues to catch people off guard when they look at a map. As such, there is also the vague and unsupported belief that the same countries that exist today always existed even when people know better. It can still, however, startle people to realize exactly how young certain countries are in reality. Germany, for example, is usually assumed to be an ancient nation like France, England or Spain. This is incorrect. Modern Germany was not founded until 1871 during the unification of Germany. The year after Germany was founded, President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone National Park. The country that was at the center of both World Wars was less than a century old when it was embroiled in the worst pair of conflicts in recorded history.

Nintendo was founded the year after Jack the Ripper terrorized London.

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When someone mentions Nintendo, most people think immediately of their best known creations. People picture video games played on a big screen TV or handheld video game systems such as the Gameboy. They think of famous characters such as Mario, Link, Kirby, Zelda, Luigi and Princess Peach. People certainly do not picture Victorian London and the rampage of arguably the most famous serial killer of all time.

Nintendo did not start out as a digital gaming company despite what many people assume. It was founded long before the internet was ever conceived of and began life manufacturing one of the oldest games of all, cards. The company started out making playing cards in 1889. Half a world away and a year before, Jack the Ripper had stalked London’s streets. In 1889, the murders that have since been named the Canonical Five, the five murders that were definitely committed by Jack the Ripper, were over, but many Londoners believed the killer still walked the streets.

Swiss women achieved suffrage two years after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

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Women’s suffrage was a long time coming. It took decades to happen, and women had to fight every step of the way. The road was long, and in some countries it was even longer. Many countries had granted women the right to vote in the first few decades of the 20th century. By the time the world had finished rebuilding after World War II, almost every country in the Western World had granted women the right to vote. Switzerland, however, was one of the few exceptions. In 1959, a referendum was held in Switzerland on the idea of women’s suffrage. It was, however, rejected by the majority of Swiss men. As such, women would have to wait over a decade before being allowed to vote in elections. They finally achieved suffrage in 1971. That same year, American astronauts drove a buggy across the surface of the moon. This means that when Neil Armstrong made his famous “one step for man” in 1969, Swiss women who watched mankind leave the Earth on TV were still unable to vote back on their home planet.

The guillotine was still used for French executions when “Star Wars” was released.

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The guillotine is one of the most famous execution inventions of all time. Invented by Joseph-Ignace Guillotin in the 18th century, the guillotine was first introduced as a way to guarantee a quick, painless death through a simple-to-use method. Guillotin’s invention was arguably a little too successful. Used with overwhelming effect and frequency during the French Revolution, Madame Guillotine is almost exclusively associated with the revolutionary period in France. Most people outside of France mistakenly assume that use of the guillotine largely died out once the revolution was complete. That said, death by beheading, more specifically death by guillotine, continued well into the 20th century. France was the last Western nation to count beheading as an official method of execution, and the instrument of choice was the guillotine. This practice finally ended in 1977 with the death of Hamida Djandoubi, a man convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering his 22 year old girlfriend. If realizing that the guillotine was used in the 20th century was not strange enough, consider this: the original “Star Wars” was released in 1977. So, the final guillotine executioner could theoretically have dropped the blade of the machine and then gone to watch Darth Vader battle Obi-Wan Kenobi.