The Gregorian calendar is not the only one in official use. In Thailand, years are counted from the Buddha's death according to local tradition, so 2026 is 2569. In Japan, official documents also use the imperial era: the Reiwa era began in 2019 with Emperor Naruhito's accession, making 2026 the year Reiwa 8. And in Iran, where the year begins at the spring equinox, March 2026 ushered in the year 1405.
That's the estimate from a WHO-led study published in The Lancet in 2024, covering the half-century since the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974. It works out to about six lives saved every minute, mostly infants. The measles vaccine alone accounts for around 60% of those lives.
According to the World Gold Council, about 216,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in all of human history. Because gold is so dense (19.3 tonnes per cubic metre), it would fit in a cube about 22 metres on each side, roughly the height of a seven-storey building. Strikingly, about two-thirds of it has been mined since 1950.