Aristotle speculates about the existence of the South Pole, becoming perhaps the first to do so
Aristotle speculated, “Now since there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole…”.
Greece
Sophocles completes the Oedipus trilogy of tragic plays
Sophocles (c. 496 – c. 406 B.C.E.) was one of the most famous and celebrated writers of tragedy plays in ancient Greece and his surviving works, written throughout the 5th century B.C.E., include such classics as Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Women of Trachis.
The Hippocratic Oath is used for the first time
The Hippocratic Oath is one of the oldest and most widely known codes of ethics.
Humanity creates democracy in Ancient Greece
In the year 507 B.C.E., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people.”
Humans of ancient Greece invent the crane
The archaeological record shows that no later than c. 515 B.C.E. distinctive cuttings for both lifting tongs and lewis irons begin to appear on stone blocks of Greek temples.
The Greeks build the world's first underground aqueduct, the Tunnel of Eupalinos, on the island of Samos
The tunnel is the second known tunnel in history which was excavated from both ends and the first with a geometry-based approach in doing so.
Thales of Miletus becomes first human to predict a solar eclipse
If the account is true, it has been suggested that Thales would have had to calculate the timing of any eclipse by recognizing patterns in the periodicities of eclipses. It has been postulated that Thales may have used the Saros cycle in his determination
The Agora thrives as public commons space in ancient Athens
From the 6th and until the 1st century B.C.E. the Agora as the heart of the government and the judiciary, as a public place of debate, as a place of worship, and as marketplace.
The first Olympic games begin in Greece
They continued for nearly 12 centuries, until Emperor Theodosius decreed in 393 C.E. that all such “pagan cults” be banned.
City-states rise to power in ancient Greece
The city-states emerged from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece and by the 8th century B.C.E. a significant process of urbanisation had begun.