In 2017, fossils from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco were dated to about 300,000 years old, roughly 100,000 years older than the previous Ethiopian record holders. That suggests our species wasn't born in a single East African 'cradle'. According to the researchers, it more likely emerged across the African continent as a whole.
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.