Which came first? · Counterintuitive

Which came first: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or the microwave oven?

The microwave oven came first, in 1945 (invented). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe followed 5 years later, in 1950 (published).

  1. Second1950

    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

    book · published

    The first Narnia book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, came out in 1950.

    Checked against Wikipedia and Wikidata

  2. First1945

    The microwave oven

    invention · invented

    Percy Spencer noticed that radar microwaves had melted a candy bar in his pocket, and went on to patent the microwave oven.

    Checked against Wikipedia and Wikidata

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.