On November 9, 1989, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced eased travel rules to the West at a televised press conference. Poorly briefed on the details, he was asked when the change would take effect. After shuffling through his notes, he improvised: 'immediately, without delay.' That evening, thousands of East Berliners flocked to the border crossings. Overwhelmed, an officer opened the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint at around 11:30 p.m.
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.