The Tea Act of 1773 let the struggling British East India Company sell its tea directly to the American colonies. Even with the tax, it became cheaper than smuggled Dutch tea. But colonists rejected the principle of a tax voted in London without them, and merchants feared the monopoly. On December 16, 1773, 342 chests of tea ended up in Boston Harbor.
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.