Which came first? · Counterintuitive
Which came first: the Great Fire of London or Pascal's calculator?
Pascal's calculator came first, in 1642 (invented). The Great Fire of London followed 24 years later, in 1666.
- Second1666
The Great Fire of London
event · happenedThe Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed more than 13,000 houses.
- First1642
Pascal's calculator
invention · inventedBlaise Pascal built his adding machine in 1642, as a teenager, to help his tax-collector father.
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All which-came-first pairs · About Older Than You Think · Quiz games
Years from Wikidata, each checked against the item’s English Wikipedia article on 2026-10-18. A year stands for what its label says: a founding, a first patent, a premiere.