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How Old Was Thomas Jefferson When He Penned The DOI?

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As a species, we have been on this Earth for a very long time. And we can affirm one thing: change is the only constant. For better or worse, many crucial moments in our national and global history have been immortalized in documents that are witnesses of our pursuit of progress. Exploring history is not only entertaining but also essential for understanding our present. Join us as we revisit these 10 documents that, in one way or another, have changed the world!

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Back in the 13th century, King John of England sealed a document that would change the course of history. This ancient but crucial document, known as the Magna Carta, paved the way for many other papers and treaties that would come.

Among its pioneering features, this document limited the power of the monarchy and proclaimed the principle that everyone was subject to the law, including the king.

Today, there are four original copies of the Magna Carta, two of them kept in the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury, and two others in the British Library in London.

Image: Jamie Morrison

In 1620, after a 2-month journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower finally arrived in what would become America.

Even while still aboard, the passengers understood the need to establish a form of government once they arrived in the New World. The pilgrims, who then established the Plymouth Colony, signed what we now know as the Mayflower Compact, a document considered by history as an early example of government by the will of the majority in this continent.

While it applied only to male passengers, the Mayflower Compact is regarded as fundamental, as it set the stage for later documents that would embody democratic principles in America.

Image: Ernie Journeys

As many of you already know, on July 4, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall), delegates from the original Thirteen Colonies adopted a revolutionary document: the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

This key document laid out the reasons why America would no longer accept British colonial rule. Its influence would later inspire similar declarations of independence in many other countries.

The men who set this precedent continue to inspire us in countless ways. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson, the mind behind the Declaration, was just 33 years old when he penned it? Truly amazing!

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On September 3, 1783, representatives from the United States and King George III of Great Britain sealed a deal like no other. The historic Treaty of Paris marked the end of the American Revolutionary War, following the victories of George Washington's army over the British forces.

With this Treaty, the American colonies established their freedom and were now officially recognized as sovereign states.

Among many other crucial points, the Treaty of Paris also recognized Americans' right to navigate the Mississippi River, a vital route for commerce that played an essential role in the growth of this country.

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After the establishment of the U.S. Constitution, some worries spread through our land. Many feared the original Constitution didn't cover or protect several individual rights and freedoms. The Bill of Rights came to assuage this concern, and its inclusion was vital to the ratification of the Constitution by the states.

Proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1791, The Bill of Rights was inspired by George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 and established the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which concern fundamental rights for citizens (such as the right to a fair trial, the right to free speech, among many others).

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1803, the year the U.S. received an offer impossible to refuse. Fifteen million dollars may seem like a lot of money. But not in this story, because for that price, the U.S. would gain a staggering 828,000 square miles of land.

The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France, then ruled by the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte, for that amount of money, which gives us approximately 18 dollars per square mile.

Robert Livingston and James Monroe, emissaries of President Thomas Jefferson, and Barbé Marbois, the French representative, signed the important treaty on April 30, 1803, opening many possibilities for America's growth and expansion.

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Abraham Lincoln is a central figure in American history for multiple reasons, with one of his most notable contributions being the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Signed on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation changed the legal status of millions. This document was crucial in the process of liberation of enslaved people in the Confederate states, even though its effects were not immediate.

As such, the Proclamation serves as a powerful symbol, standing as a testament to the foundational principles of freedom and equality upon which our nation was built.

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When WWI finally ended, the world was clamoring for peace, and one of the most famous peace treaties in history was the Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty of Versailles, named after the palace where it was signed on June 28, 1919, marked a major deal between the Allied, other associated powers, and Germany. This historic document of 440 articles, which came into force on January 10, 1920, made some serious demands, including big war reparations.

Even though the Treaty of Versailles aimed for peace and compensation, some historians criticize it for being too severe, and some even say it helped set the stage for World War II.

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The 19th Amendment marked a triumph after many years of women's determined fight for the right to vote.

Also known as the Anthony Amendment in honor of Susan B. Anthony, the 19th Amendment was finally ratified in 1920. But it was actually proposed an astonishing 42 years earlier, way back in 1878.

Prohibiting gender discrimination in voting, this amendment became a major milestone in our country's history, and it was just one of the many rights women won in the following decades.

Image: NPS Photo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As you probably already know, Eleanor Roosevelt was an important advocate behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Leading a committee of global representatives, she headed the drafting of this groundbreaking document, which was later approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

One of the most important rights documents in world history, this declaration- comprising 30 articles - establishes certain civil, economic, social, and cultural rights considered fundamental, regardless of "nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status."

Prophetic hits

10 times fiction turned into fact: predictions that became reality

Image: Drew Beamer

No one can know what the future holds, but there’s no harm in trying to guess! Throughout history, some people have had a knack for making predictions that, no matter how impossible they seemed at the time, turned out to be true. From robotic assistants to the tragedy of the Titanic, there’s no shortage of eerie predictions that became reality. Here, we’ve gathered 10 of the craziest for your enjoyment!

Image: Justin Wolff

Twain famously predicted his own death. He stated that he would die with Halley’s Comet, which was visible in the sky in 1910. He said, "I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it." Remarkably, Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, just one day after Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth, making his death one of the most uncanny and accurate personal predictions in history.

Image: Paula Lavalle

Nikola Tesla envisioned a wireless, global communication system that would allow people to transmit voice, images, and information anywhere in the world. In a 1926 interview, he speculated about the future of mobile technology, saying, "When wireless is fully applied, the Earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of solving the problems of humanity." This prediction is strikingly close to modern smartphones, though the "huge brain" part is a bit more questionable.

Image: Chris Karidis

Nostradamus’s quatrains are often cited as predictions of major events, and one of his verses is believed to foresee the Great Fire of London in 1666. The quatrain reads: "The blood of the just will be demanded of London, burnt by fire in the year ‘66." In fact, the historically infamous Great Fire of London did break out in 1666, devastating much of the city. Though Nostradamus' cryptic style leaves much room for interpretation, this one is as accurate as predictions can get!

Image: Brian McGowan

Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel From the Earth to the Moon imagined a moon landing, complete with remarkable details such as launching from Florida and returning via splashdown in the ocean. His fictional spacecraft even bore a resemblance to the Apollo command module. To make this even more impressive, in Verne’s time, the idea of actually reaching the Moon was as alien and impossible as it gets! Space travel was purely the stuff of fantasy, and no one had yet conceived of the technology needed to make it a reality.

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In Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella Futility, a ship called the Titan strikes an iceberg and sinks—all of this obviously sounds eerily familiar, but surprisingly it was written 14 years before the actual Titanic disaster! The many similarities are striking: both ships were deemed "unsinkable" and carried insufficient lifeboats.

Image: Dan Meyers

In his 1914 novel The World Set Free, H.G. Wells described a future with "atomic bombs" many decades before their invention. His fictional weapons used radioactive decay to unleash destructive power, in an eerily similar fashion to nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly, when the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, physicists referenced Wells’ work, acknowledging its role in sparking public imagination about the potential and dangers of atomic energy.

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Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel Looking Backward envisioned a utopian future in which citizens used a card to access funds from a central bank—a concept that closely resembles modern credit or debit cards, which didn’t emerge until the mid-20th century. While Bellamy’s vision was rooted in fiction, it’s clear he had a very good understanding of how emerging economic trends could shape the distant future.

Image: Leon Seibert

Mark Twain certainly had a knack for predicting the future. Not content with foreseeing the date of his own death, he also described a global "telectroscope" network that connected people instantly across the world—a concept we now easily recognize as an early imagining of the internet.

Image: Chris Montgomery

The silent 1927 film Metropolis featured a video phone, many years before such technology was even considered possible. This futuristic device envisioned real-time, face-to-face communication, remarkably similar to how video calls work today. The film captured early 20th-century optimism about technological progress, highlighting how fiction can inspire real-world innovation.

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In Asimov’s I, Robot (1950), he envisioned a world where robots worked alongside humans, governed by ethical guidelines such as the famous "Three Laws of Robotics." While we aren’t quite there yet, the issues and concepts Asimov introduced continue to resonate today. His work not only anticipated the potential of artificial intelligence but also sparked ongoing ethical debates about AI development and the complexities of integrating advanced technology into society.