Last week, a 17-year-old California boy named Zac Sunderland made history: He became the youngest person ever to complete a solo sail around the world. That's right, this teenager spent 13 months all by his lonesome on a 36-foot boot, navigating the waters of three oceans and five seas. Quite impressive.
But Sunderland isn't the only "person of youth" to make the history books. In fact, we've found that ambitious and noteworthy teenagers have been doing their precocious thing since the dawn of time. So whenever someone accuses young people of being lazy, just direct them to the timeline below and say, "Nuh-uh."
(*Note: Some of the following facts have not been confirmed by thorough research. But we're pretty sure they happened. Just take our word for it, okay?)
Dawn of time: Time begins
Roughly 14 years after the dawn of time: First recorded instance of a teenager yelling at her parents, "This is sooooo not FAIR!"
30,000 years ago: Early cave painting shows a young adult male showing his muscles to a nearby teenage female. (Female is soooo not impressed.)
1323 B.C.: 19-year-old King Tutankhamun dies after ruling Egypt as a god since the age of 10. During his reign, he restored the old priesthoods, moved the capital to Thebes, and erected a bunch of temples and stuff.
340 B.C.: At age 16, Alexander the Great is left in charge of his father's kingdom. He squashes a revolt. Nice!
117 B.C.: Teens hold secret cave-meeting where there are "No Parents Allowed." Their parents find out because Thor told his mom that he was staying at Zarda's tent, and Zarda told his mom that he was staying at Thor's tent, and...well, you know the rest.
955 A.D.: At the age of 18, Pope John XII begins his papacy. Rumors have it that he was murdered by a jealous husband...whose wife was engaged in an affair with the Pope. For reals.
1214: A bold 14-year-old tries to court a very attractive 18-year-old. He thinks he's making progress, but he's perturbed to discover that her dowry is only three goats.
1429: Joan of Arc, then 17 years old, arrives at the siege of Orleans and, with divine guidance, leads the French army in a number of victories during the 100 Years' War. (And for all her troubles, she gets burned at the stake.)
1538: With the rise of the printing press, literacy spreads. Teens everywhere soon begin scribbling notes to each other on scraps of paper. "Dost thou know if Adelaide will takest mine heart? Check thee 'Yay' or 'Nay'."
1816: At 18 years old, Mary Shelley—obviously scarred from being dubbed "uncool" in high school, and looking to exact revenge on teens for all time—begins writing Frankenstein. She completes the book at age 19. Overachiever.
1944: The first teen magazine, Seventeen, is published. Teenage boys everywhere are seethe as their female classmates turn their attention to pop idols like singers Frankie Avalon and Ricky Nelson. Oh yeah, and some guy named Elvis.
1956: Bobby Fischer, then all of 13 years old, beats Donald Byrne (26 at the time) at a game of chess. All right, fine: it was "The Game of the Century."
1983: Brian Zimmerman is elected mayor of Crabb, Texas. He's only 11 years old, so, technically, he's not a teenager. Which means, technically, you don't have to feel bad about how ambitious he was. Phew.
1990-1995: The world sees an influx of babies who are uber-cool right out of the womb. They give high fives and can do an awesome baby-dance.
2003: Fifteen-year-old Ming Kipa Sherpa becomes the youngest person to summit Mount Everest. Because Nepal doesn't allow climbers younger than 16, Ming climbed up the mountain's Chinese side. Climbing skills and no fear of authority: a true teenage heroine.
2009: Zac Sunderland completes his round-the-world sailing thingy, prompting us to run this post. Shortly thereafter, a rash of historic achievements by Sparklers takes the world by storm. SparkNotes is forever after heralded as the inspiration for a new and better world.
Any famous teens we forgot? What about your own historical record? Is there anything you want to accomplish before you hit the big 2-0?
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