Tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens met Neanderthals and had children with them. As a result, most populations outside Africa carry around 1 to 2% Neanderthal DNA today. Some of those genes still influence our immune systems. Uncovering this earned geneticist Svante Pääbo the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Around 2300 BCE, Enheduanna, daughter of King Sargon of Akkad, became high priestess of the Moon god at Ur. She composed hymns to the goddess Inanna and put her name to them. She is the oldest person identified as the author of a literary work, about 1,500 years before Homer.
Squeeze Earth's 4.5 billion years into a single 24-hour day. Homo sapiens shows up around 11:59:54 p.m., roughly six seconds before midnight. All of written history, from Sumerian tablets to today, fits into the final tenth of a second. A cosmic blink.