Set up in August 1963 after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the direct line between Washington and Moscow actually connected teletype machines. Written messages left time to translate and weigh every word, rather than risk a misunderstanding over the phone. The link later moved to fax in the 1980s, then to a secure computer connection. The red handset from the movies never existed on it.
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.