Last sighting of the dodo
Humans wipe out Mauritius's flightless bird in under a century
In 1662 sailors from the wrecked Dutch ship Arnhem described dodos on an islet off Mauritius, the last widely accepted sighting. Hunting and introduced animals wiped the bird out within a century of discovery. Meanwhile, Louis XIV was beginning to rebuild Versailles.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Did you know
The last confirmed sighting of a dodo was in 1662 — just as Louis XIV was beginning to rebuild Versailles.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — 14 years earlier
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — 13 years earlier
- 1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — 14 years later
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — 21 years later
- 1687 Newton's Principia — 25 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — 8 years earlier
- 1682 Accession of Peter the Great — 20 years later
Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — 18 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Rembrandt (aged 56)
- Louis XIV (aged 24)
- Isaac Newton (aged 19)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 8)
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba (aged 79)
- Shah Jahan (aged 70)
- Aurangzeb (aged 44)
- Alexis the Most Quiet (aged 33)
- Shivaji (aged 32)
- Charles II (aged 32)