Things Older Than America: Inventions, Food, Institutions

Methuselah, named for the Biblical determine who was stated to have lived to be 969 years previous, is a Nice Basin bristlecone pine tree rising in California’s White Mountains. In accordance with the National Park Service, the tree is 4,765 years previous.

Technically, Methusaleh is in a “secret location” to guard it, although if the place to look on the web, you could possibly work out the place that’s.

Taos Pueblo is “one of many oldest residing and constantly inhabited communities in the USA,” in accordance with its tourism website.

It’s the house of a gaggle of Tiwa-speaking Pueblo individuals, who’ve been within the space since 900 AD, and the principle adobe constructions there right this moment had been constructed between 1000 and 1450.

You may go to Taos Pueblo, however not all areas are accessible to guests, and you might be requested to comply with a set of rules to assist shield the group’s tradition and traditions.

The Hartford Courant’s origins might be traced again to 1764, when it was a weekly paper known as the Connecticut Courant. The paper advertises itself as “America’s oldest constantly printed newspaper,” in accordance with the University of Connecticut.

Throughout the colonial interval, it saved readers knowledgeable about main occasions, such because the Stamp Act, turning into “essentially the most extensively circulated newspaper within the colonies,” in accordance with ConnecticutHistory.org.

In July 1776, the newspaper printed the Declaration of Independence in full.

Barclays was based in London in 1690 by two bankers, John Freame and Thomas Gould, although the financial institution did not undertake the Barclays identify till 1736, when Freame’s son-in-law turned a companion. His identify? James Barclay.

Now, Barclays is without doubt one of the 20 largest banks on the planet and the second-largest British financial institution, behind solely HSBC, in accordance with a 2026 S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

Along with being older than the USA of America, Oxford calls itself the “oldest college within the English-speaking world.”

In accordance with its website, there was some type of instructing at Oxford way back to 1096. After the College of Paris banned English pupils in 1167, Oxford grew rapidly.

Earlier than the flip of the seventeenth century, it’s believed that there have been round 3,200 undergraduates on the college. In the present day, there are greater than 12,000.

Within the US, Harvard College additionally acquired its begin earlier than the USA of America.

Then recognized merely as “the colledge,” it was based in Massachusetts in 1636 and moved to its present location (in what was quickly to be named Cambridge) the next yr, in accordance with the college’s timeline. Its first graduates — all 9 of them — accomplished their research in 1642.

Greater than a century later, eight of its alumni would signal the Declaration of Independence.

Stella Artois, the Belgian beer in style within the US and around the globe, was based in Leuven, Belgium, in 1366 — sure, Stella is 660 years previous.

It will get its identify from the Latin phrase for “star,” because the brewery initially developed it as a Christmas present for locals.

Centuries later, it was formally launched to the US market in 1999, throughout proprietor Interbrew’s world enlargement.

After all, the fashionable strain cooker right this moment is a bit completely different than the one invented by French physicist Denis Papin in 1679, however an Prompt Pot owes its primary design to Papin’s “steam digester.”

Each depend on the identical precept of trapping steam and elevating strain contained in the cooker to attain a better boiling level, cooking meals sooner.

A home model was popularized within the US in 1939, after Presto launched its mannequin on the New York World’s Truthful.

The Greenland shark is estimated to dwell at least 250 years, and will dwell for so long as 500 years, per NOAA.

This implies there are some Greenland sharks within the depths of the North Atlantic that could be older than the US.

It has a status because the longest-lived vertebrate and might measure as much as 23 ft lengthy, though most do not exceed 13 ft, in accordance with Britannica.

Twinings has been serving the tea-lovers of London (and later, the world) since Thomas Twining opened Tom’s Espresso Home in 1706.

Tea’s recognition continued to skyrocket within the Western world after that, as did Twinings. In truth, when the Boston Tea Social gathering occurred in 1773, a neighborhood author famous that “it was not Twinings tea the Boston rebels tossed into the ocean.”