Aboard HMS Salisbury, James Lind split twelve sailors with scurvy into six pairs, each given a different remedy: cider, vinegar, seawater, diluted acid… or two oranges and a lemon a day. Only the citrus pair recovered quickly. Often cited as one of the first controlled clinical trials, it still took until 1795, nearly fifty years later, for the Royal Navy to change its rations.
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.