The greatest find from the Antikythera wreck went unnoticed at first.

1901 · 1902 · apart: 1 year

Bronze statues came up in 1901, but only in 1902 did archaeologist Valerios Stais spot a gear wheel in a dull lump of corroded metal.

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The event

• Antikythera mechanismc. 150 BC · Antikythera island. In 1901 sponge divers raised a lump of geared bronze from a Roman-era shipwreck. It was a Greek device of the 2nd century BC that computed planetary positions, eclipses and even the years of the Olympic Games. Nothing as complex reappeared until the 14th century.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1899 The first car to break 100 km/h was electric: in 1899 Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy hit almost 106 km/h near Paris in the torpedo-shaped La Jamais Contente, 'The Never Satisfied'.
• 1899 The head of the US Patent Office never said 'everything that can be invented has been invented'. The line is pinned on Charles Duell in 1899, but there is no evidence for it, and his reports in fact looked forward to new inventions.
• 1900 The 1900 Paris Olympics dragged on for over five months, from 14 May to 28 October.
• 1901 · 1913 Canberra exists because neither Sydney nor Melbourne would let the other be capital.
• 1901 · 1976 A bulb in a Livermore fire station has been lit since 1901 and has hardly ever been off. When it was moved to a new station in 1976 it went dark for about 22 minutes; rather than unscrew it, they cut the cord.
• 1902 Méliès's 1902 A Trip to the Moon was a smash hit and a piracy victim.

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