• masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    105·
    7 days ago

    Here’s some wild river history for you:

    The great lakes are super big, have huge flow rates, Superior is famously super deep since it’s a continental-rift lake that was widened by glacial retreat … But they only formed like 14,000 years ago when the glaciers retreated…

    The river Tyne in England is 30 million years old, just when Antarctica was separating from Australia and South America.

    The river Thames is 58 million years old, that’s just after the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.

    The Rhine is at least 240 million years old … From the Triassic era if not earlier.

    And then there’s 3 rivers in Appalachia that are ~ 320 million years old… The French Broad river, the Susquehanna river, and (ironically) the New river. They’ve been continuously flowing since the carboniferous period, literally when Pangea first started forming and before any bacteria or enzymes could break down trees (which eventually compacted and became all the coal in the mountains that formed alongside them).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_by_age

  • Masterkraft0r@discuss.tchncs.de
    30·
    2 days ago

    Trees are not that related to each other. Woody plants evolved multiple times over earths history. And while e.g. beeches are closely related to oaks, they are more closely related to strawberries than to e.g. ashes. Black locust tree is more closely related to beans or peas than to birches (which are again related to oaks and beeches). Apples are even more closely related to strawberries than to oaks. That broke my mind during Covid. All conifers are somewhat closely related though.

    edit: typo

  • marzhall@lemmy.world
    461·
    6 days ago

    Columbus’ contact resulted in a 92% loss of population in North, Central, and South America. Mexico City area only just re-reached its pre-contact population estimate in the 1960s.

    “1491” is a good read.

      • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
        17·
        6 days ago

        It is the greatest loss of human knowledge that we know of. Certainly the largest in the last 4000 years. It puts the burning of the Library of Alexandria to shame. Entire civilizations, and the sum of all their knowledge, gone. Wiped out. Practically erased from history. The Aztecs had a full writing system and a long recorded history, all burned to ash by the Spaniards just for the hell of it; only scraps remain.

        • IlovePizza@lemmy.world
          45·
          6 days ago

          From ChatGPT:

          Several Indigenous civilizations in the Americas had their written records deliberately destroyed, while others relied heavily on oral knowledge that disappeared when communities were decimated. Here’s a clear breakdown of both types:

          Civilizations Whose Records Were Intentionally Destroyed

          Aztec (Mexica) Empire

          • Type of records: Pictorial and glyphic codices on history, astronomy, tribute, law, and religion.
          • Destruction: After the conquest, Spanish authorities, most famously Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and later Diego de Landa, burned almost all Aztec codices as “idolatrous.”
          • Survival: Fewer than 20 pre-conquest or early-contact codices survive.

          Maya Civilization

          • Type of records: Highly developed writing system; texts on astronomy, mathematics, calendars, history, and ritual.
          • Destruction: Inquisition-era clerics burned “thousands” of books and idols; Diego de Landa’s auto-da-fé in 1562 is the most notorious.
          • Survival: Only four confirmed pre-conquest Maya codices remain (Dresden, Madrid, Paris, Grolier).

          Mixtec Civilization

          • Type of records: Rich pictographic histories of dynasties, genealogies, wars, religious rituals.
          • Destruction: Many codices lost to Spanish burnings and suppression of Mixtec priest-scribes.
          • Survival: A few extraordinary codices remain (Codex Zouche-Nuttall, Codex Vindobonensis).

          Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)

          • Type of records: Not written in books, but quipus—complex knotted-string recording systems for census, tribute, calendrics, and possibly narrative information.
          • Destruction: Colonial authorities destroyed many quipus, and forced conversion efforts suppressed quipu-keepers (khipukamayuqs).
          • Survival: ~1,000 quipus remain, but most without context.

          Taíno (Caribbean)

          • Type of records: Primarily oral, but also ceremonial carvings (zemis), sacred objects, and chronicled songs.
          • Destruction: Spanish campaigns wiped out most of the population within decades; much material culture was destroyed or lost.

          Muisca (Colombia)

          • Type of records: Mostly oral histories and sacred textiles and objects.
          • Destruction: Spanish suppression of temples and ceremonial items erased much of their intellectual heritage.

          Civilizations Whose Knowledge Faded With Their Communities

          These relied heavily on oral traditions or fragile local materials. When communities were devastated by disease, enslavement, and forced assimilation, their knowledge systems could not survive intact.

          Mississippian Cultures (e.g., Cahokia)

          • No writing system; history was preserved orally.
          • Collapse accelerated by population loss after contact, long before written ethnography could record their traditions.

          Ancestral Puebloans, Hohokam, Mogollon

          • Sophisticated sciences (astronomy, hydrology, architecture) maintained through oral knowledge.
          • Much was lost after displacement, missionization, and cultural fragmentation.

          Wari, Tiwanaku (pre-Inca Andes)

          • No writing system; relied on knot-based or symbolic systems.
          • Knowledge of state organization and ritual life vanished after the societies collapsed long before Spanish arrival, and then post-contact disruptions erased remaining memories.

          Nahua, Zapotec, Purepecha, and many others

          • These groups had writing or semi-writing systems, but much of what we know today survives only in fragments because:

            • manuscripts were burned,
            • priestly classes were suppressed,
            • or oral lineages were broken.

          The Scale of Loss

          Across the Americas, scholars estimate:

          • hundreds of languages vanished, each carrying unique worldviews and knowledge systems;
          • countless scientific, agricultural, ecological, and medical traditions were lost or fragmented;
          • many civilizations’ histories and lineages were erased or only partially reconstructed through archaeology.

          It truly was a civilizational-scale knowledge collapse—yet also a story of survival, because many Indigenous peoples continue to preserve, revive, and rebuild these traditions today.

    • sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      5·
      6 days ago

      Then Cortez finished the job when he explored from Florida to Texas. He also introduced wild hogs to the continent, which introduced trichinella parasites to native fauna. Truly one of the most ecologically destructive events in the past thousand years.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      6·
      6 days ago

      The weird part about that is that Columbus was the third expedition to the American continent from the European continent.

      First was a single Irish/Celtic(?) monk in the 800s. Second was Leif Erikson and his crew of “Vikings” in the 1100-1200s. Neither one of those caused widespread disease in the Americas, despite the fact that the monk made it as far as The Great Lakes, and Leif Erickson’s expedition was cut quite short with them engaging in battle with the first natives they saw, resulting in the death of Leif Erikson as well as a few of his companions.

        • Uruanna@lemmy.world
          7·
          6 days ago

          Brendan the navigator, 6th c., but the story about “Saint Brendan’s island” is not proven to be about America AFAIK. Or true. It’s a legend about a blessed island that may be a religious myth.

          There’s a ton of legends of sailors finding a vanishing island, an island of plenty, the island of apples, that various theories have attached to the Canaries or Azores and such IINM. Saint Brendan is just one among those, so it’s hard to assume it’s fact.

          Also, Leif Erikson was in year 1000. And there is a strong suspicion that diseases did play a big role and made it a shitshow.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    70·
    7 days ago

    • Coca-Cola: Founded 1888

    • Nintendo: Founded 1889

    • Dracula, by Bram Stoker: Published 1897

    It would have been historically accurate for the vampire hunters who killed Dracula to celebrate by having a Coke and playing Nintendo.

  • hactar42@lemmy.ml
    51·
    7 days ago

    The Appalachian Mountains are older than trees, dinosaurs, the Atlantic Ocean, and Pangea

  • jambudz@lemmy.zip
    31·
    6 days ago

    Men’s clothing keep getting shorter and shorter in the late Middle Ages/early modern period to the point where at court, their dicks could be seen. The solution was cod pieces, some of which were elaborate, bejeweled, erect penises. This trend ended in England when Elizabeth I fully came into her role as “the virgin queen”

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    62·
    7 days ago

    • Scotland’s first railway, the Cockenzie and Tranent waggonway, played a role in the Battle of Prestonpans (1745). The final piece of the line went out of use in the 1960s.

    • The Last Stand by Sabaton was describing an event that happened in 1527, the year Henry VIII was trying to get an annulment. The events of The last stand played a role in the founding of the church of England.

    • San Marino is so old it was founded before The Council of Nicea.

    • The oldest Evidence in the archeological record we have of transgender individuals is older than the oldest archaeological evidence for gay couples.

    • The first use of “OMG” was on a memo sent to Winston Churchill in 1917.

    • India and Sri Lanka were connected by a land bridge until the 1500s. The remains of which are still a tourist attraction.

    • The first scientific study into transgender people was published in 1896 and studies about transgender people were burnt by the Nazis. Don’t ever let people say transgender people are a recent thing.

    • The Romance languages have been written down for so long that we can basically watch the evolution of multiple languages in real time through texts.

    • Oxford university was founded before what would become the Maori settled in New Zealand.

    • One of the last people born into (legal) Slavery in the USA died after being hit by a car in the 1970s.

    • It’s possible that former Samurai lived to see the 20th century.

  • ronl2k@lemmy.worldEnglish
    43·
    6 days ago
    • John Tyler, 10th president of the US (1790-1862), had a grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler (Nov, 1928) who just recently died in May of 2025.
    • The last survivor from the 1800’s was Emma Morano, born 11/29/1899 Civiasco, Italy. Died 04/15/2017 in Verbania, Italy. So most people reading this had a chance to speak to someone born in 1899.
    • All of Napoleon Bonaparte’s 4 brothers lived into the age of photography (1826) and had their photo taken with a camera. His youngest brother Jérôme sat for many photo sessions. Only one of his 3 sisters, Caroline, lived into the era but never had a photo taken. Napoleon Bonaparte (08/15/1769 - 05/05/1821), didn’t live into the age of photography.
    • Humans are the only animals capable of appreciating art. Yes, chimps and elephants can make their own art, but they have no interest in it after they’re done with it.
    • mkwt@lemmy.world
      9·
      6 days ago

      In this vein,

      In July 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a speech at Gettysburg to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle. 25 veterans from the original battle attended. They were filmed, on movie film, walking in the parade.

      (This vignette opens the Ken Burns documentary)

    • dellish@lemmy.world
      10·
      7 days ago

      Did 1899 skip December for some reason?

      Edit: Or do you mean the last surviving person, or longest-lived person, born in the 1800’s?

    • Unlearned9545@lemmy.world
      5·
      7 days ago

      I’ve personally seen behavior from cats and bears that appear to contradict your last statement but only anecdotal.

  • Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world
    271·
    6 days ago

    I once turned down a gangbang that would have been me and 6 girls because I felt a little hung over… That was 25 years ago, and Im still not over how monumentally fucking stupid that was.

      • Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world
        6·
        6 days ago

        Thats a good one, but I usually try to sooth myself by thinking it was a ploy to steal my kidneys… YEah, they were after my kidneys… They were after my kidneys… Im going to be crying about that one on my deathbed lol

        • flubba86@lemmy.world
          9·
          6 days ago

          Bro, I think they were definitely gonna steal your kidneys! Good job weasling out of it, bullet dodged!

  • glitchdx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    6 days ago

    It would have been historically accurate if Dracula was drinking coke and wearing blue jeans and playing with nintendo cards when a party of a cowboy a samurai and a pirate invaded his castle.

    And this time period was supposedly The Enlightnement, which jack shit of was taught in the school I went to as a kid. Sounds cool as fuck.

  • Taleya@aussie.zoneEnglish
    20·
    6 days ago

    The last American Civil War pensioner passed away in May 2020.

    Her father served. He fathered her at 82, in 1930.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      41·
      6 days ago

      Possible… But unlikely in practice. Male sperm starts decreasing in quantity and quality after 30.

      And the timing means they still had literal milkmen…

      • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
        2·
        5 days ago

        I pretty much ignore any of the claims in this thread that hinge on someone being really old. There’s just no way to tell if that’s really true, the older the people supposedly get the more likely it is that they faked (or just didn’t know) their real age, e.g. by using a relative’s paperwork or telling an official that they’re 40 instead of 50. BTW the “blue areas” are probably fake, too.

  • obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip
    31·
    6 days ago

    George Washington’s Continental Army had a vaccine mandate.

    Heroin was first synthesized in 1874. It’s older than 13 US states. Sitting Bull and heroin existed at the same time. In 1898 it was sold by Bayer as a recreational drug under the brand name Heroin. Frederick Nietzsche was around for the heroin trade.

    • BanMe@lemmy.world
      8·
      6 days ago

      I’ve seen Bayer heroin tins in a few museums and was glad I lived in an era where you had to go to the work of calling your friend’s brother Todd to take you to Corey’s house to get high, which was way more trouble than it was worth.

  • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world
    39·
    7 days ago

    Isaac Newton was the Master of the Mint. Back then, issues with counterfeiting or diluting the coinage was an issue. He personally went in disguise to bars to track down these counterfeiters. Who were then executed.