The Locomotive Act of 1865 regulated self-propelled vehicles, steam-powered at the time: 4 mph in the country, 2 mph in towns, and a man walking 60 yards ahead with a red flag to warn horses and pedestrians. The flag became optional in 1878, but the walker stayed mandatory until 1896. An annual veteran car run from London to Brighton still celebrates that liberation.
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.