(History) Breaking World Records Flashcards
Library of Alexandria
- 283 BC
- Large archive of texts
- Major part located in the Temple of Serapis
Destruction of Library of Alexandria
- Near 48 AD
- Julius Ceasar - burning ships
- Theophilus - Temple of Serapis which contained 10%
- Moslem Caliph Omar - order docs to be burned 640 AD
- Cyril also part
Preservations of Library of Alexandria by Mark Antony
- Supposedly transferred 200k scrolls to Cleopatra
- Books & writings scattered around middle east
- Library still exists in pieces
House of Wisdom
- Library founded by Caliph Al-mamun in the 700s
- Contains scripts in Pahlavi, Syriac, Greek & Sanskrit translated to Arabic
- Open for public at the time
Origin of the House of Wisdom
- Muawiyah I of the Umayyad dynasty
- Collected a lot of books in Damascus
- Promotion for scholarship by Caliph Al Masurand Al-mamun
- Pushing the Islamic golden age forward
Destruction of the House of Wisdom
- 1258, Baghdad
- Mongols attacked region & threw books into rivers
- Rivers ran black for 6 months due to ink
Mongols barrier of expansion
- Genghis Khan took over most of Asia in 1026
- Started with Europe
- Temperature different
- Ghenghis Khan died
Dendrochronology to see why Genghis Khan didn’t take over Europe
- Cold & wet conditions
- Little mobility & efficiency for the Khan
Khan’s death
- Before reaching Hungary, Ogodei took over
- Ogodei died soon in 1241, maybe due to bad weather
- Giant empire collapsed
Tripitaka Koreana
- Big collection of Buddhism texts
- Located in Haeinsa Tempt rn
- Transfered to Heainsa & safekept in depositories
- All wood blocks transfered into copper & digitized
Creations & destruction of Tripitaka Koreana
- Completed in 1087
- Destroyed in 1232 by Mongols
- 1237, King Gojong ordered to remake & damage proof the collection using salt, seawater, …
- Carved into wood on Ganghwa Island, completed in 11 years
Awards for Tripitaka Koreana
- Deemed National Treasure in 1962
- UNESCO heritage site in 1995
Century Safe
- First ever planned time capsule
- Created in 1876 at the US Centennial Expo in Philadelphia & sealed in 1879
- Gold pen & ink stand
- Book on temperance
- Civilian & famous figures’ signatures
- Picture of Ulysses Grant and other figures from Mathew Brady
Discovery of Century Safe
- Opened at bicentennial festivals in 1976
- Attended by Gerald Ford
- Mike Mansfied fulfilled “the wish of a lady who sought to speak to us from the other side of a 100-year gulf.”
Massachusetts State House Time Capsule
- Oldest time capsule, unplanned, 1795
- Created by Samuel Adams & Paul Revere
- Opened in 1855 to add & clean
Discovery & contents of the Massachusetts State House Time Capsule
- Found in 2014, opened in 2015
- Newspapers, coins from 1600s, page from colony record
- Copper medal awarded to George Washington
- Silver plaque describing info
Crypt of Civilization & dates
- Oglethorpe’s attempt to preserve all of human history
- Founded by Thornnwell Jacob, believed it’d be useful
- Construction begun in 1937- 1940
- Closed for 6000 years until 8113
- Instructions to teach future people English to understand artifacts
Contents of Crypt of Civilization
- 640k microfilmed books, religious texts, etc…
- Early TV, beer container & set of Lincoln Logs
Westinghouse Time Capsule
- Sealed in the 1939 World Fair
- Created by Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing
- Located in a 50-foot Immortal Well
- Deemed a time bomb before being named the first time capsule
- Another one sealed in 1965
- Opened in 6939 in 5000 years
Contents of the Westinghouse Time Capsule
- Collection of seeds, metals, textiles, microfilm & newspapers
- The Beatles record, bikini, pack of cigars, mickey mouse cup
- Letter from Albert Einstein on scientific progress
Detroit Century Box
- Sealed in Jan 1, 1901 by Mayor William Maybury
- Opened by Dennis Archer in Dec 2000 & discovered contents
Contents of the Detroit Century Box
- Maybury asking how quick transports are & how they communicate
- Wrong estimates by politicians:
+ Canada annexed, Ontario join USA
+ Prisoners sent through flying machines & pistons, …
Expo 70 Capsule
- Created by Panasonic & sealed in the 1970 Expo in Osaka
- To be closed for 5000 yrs
- Sealed with special gas to preserve contents
- Control capsule opened for cleaning every 100 years
Contents of Expo 70 Capsule
- Films, ceremonial Kimono & slinky
- Fingernail of a Hiroshima survivor
Juneau Capsule
Alaska’s capsule in its federal building
1994 - 2094
Contents of the Juneau Capsule
- Sony Walkman, Wonderbra, Barbie doll, restaurant menus
- Letters from children to students of the future
Future Library
- Collection of writings in the making
- By Katie Paterson, started in 2014, all published in 2114
- 1000 trees in Oslo supplied printing paper
How Future Library works
- Pieces of writing submitted once every year
- Collection of 100 books not to be revealed until 2114
- Writers of submissions only give titles
- Margaret Atwood submitted “Scribbler Moon” in 2014
- David Mitchell provided a second novel in 2015
Polish Polar time capsule
- Buried 5m deep in snow in Svalbard in 2017 by an org
- Mark the 60th anniversary of the year 1957-58
- Representation of science & tech rn
- Open whenever it surfaces, around 500k years later
Content of the Polish Polar time capsule
- Namibian sand, basaltic lava, 4.5 billion years old asteroid, credit card, DNA
- Give future civilizations a better insight of our lives
ITCS
International Time Capsule Society
- Dedicated to tracking time capsules, their opening dates,…
- Paul Hudson oversees keeping track operations
- Thousands of capsules over 30 years
- Guaranteed trust fund giving money to the org & free volunteered service
- US gov certified repository system
- Andrienne Waterman - chairman of ITCS seeing increase in registration
- 80% still go unregistered
New time capsule discoveries by ICTS
- Base of Robert E Lee statue
- In 2020
- Banknotes, books & pamphlets
- Sealed in 1887
Everyday Collections
- Andrew Warhol collecting everyday items in a box
- 6th grade classroom in Portland making a time capsule to be opened in 2046 when they’ve matured
