Before One Direction: A Look Back At History

PublishedAugust 23, 2013

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300 million BC: More than 300 million years before the boys lit up the charts with their hit single “What Makes You Beautiful,” spiders evolved from crab-like ancestors called chelicerata, which originated as marine mammals during the Cambrian period.

3350 BC: The first written language, Sumerian, develops in Mesopotamia, allowing for the rise of human civilization and the crafting of One Direction's smash single, "Live While We're Young."

221 BC: Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang orders the construction of the Great Wall, a full 2,233 years before One Direction won their first VMA for Best Pop Video.

476: Romulus Augustulus abdicates to barbarian military leader Flavius Odoacer, drawing the Roman Empire to a close, much in the same way that One Direction's ascension up the pop charts heralded the downfall of Irish boy band Westlife.

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1066: The Battle of Hastings concludes with William the Conqueror's decisive victory over King Harold II, securing the Norman conquest of England on the bloody battlefields of East Sussex, just 79 miles away from where One Direction would later meet as contestants on The X Factor.

1346-1353: The Black Death sweeps through Europe, killing as many as 200 million people.

1776: Thomas Paine publishes the highly influential revolutionary pamphlet 'Common Sense,' arguing for freedom from British rule. Although unrelated to Liam Payne in any way, their last names sound the same when said aloud.

1936: Television legend Alan Alda is born, much like Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson, who were all also later born.

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1991-2002: The Sierra Leone Civil War ends in the deaths of more than 50,000 individuals. One Direction recorded a cover of the Kings of Leon's 'Use Somebody' in 2012.

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