Around 1450, Gutenberg developed his movable-type press in Mainz. At that moment the Eastern Roman Empire, whose people still called themselves 'Romans', was ruling from Constantinople. It only fell in 1453. An institution born in antiquity briefly coexisted with the technology that would usher in the modern age.
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.