James Cook
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
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1727 to 1817 opens onto 13 lives, 8 place stories, and 1 named historical windows.
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These are the clearest lives to open first when you want a person, not a date label, to lead you into the period.
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
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1780 - Vienna
Maternal myth, bodily decline, and authority resisting sentimental reduction.
In Vienna, with her body failing, an empress who held together an empire through sixteen pregnancies reflects on the cost.
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1785 - Sanssouci
Intellectual pride, bodily siege, and legend resisting simplification.
At Sanssouci, in his last year of clarity, a warrior-king reflects on what Prussia cost him and what it will become without him.
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1790 - Philadelphia
Usefulness, public myth, old age, and the accounting of self.
In Philadelphia, the most practical man of the Revolution reflects on what independence actually required — and what it didn't.
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1793 - Conciergerie, Paris
Scapegoating, mythmaking, and a queen resisting reduction to symbol.
Waiting for the blade in the Conciergerie, a queen dismantles the lie that she was ever in control.
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1794 - Luxembourg Prison, Paris
Under guard in the Luxembourg Prison, a chemist who transformed science waits to learn whether the Revolution will let him live.
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Places inside this time
In 1727 to 1817, use the same years to move from chronology into cities, courts, islands, and regions that already carry deeper context.
Alive in this timeline around 1779 / story span 1779
Connected to 1 life including James Cook.
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Alive in this timeline around 1780 / story span 180-1780
Connected to 1 life including Maria Theresa.
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Named windows
1 windows to step into
Early Modern
1750 to 1825
Private lives inside state collapse, military ambition, and the remaking of legitimacy.
16 lives visible here
15 place stories active in the same years
Enter this periodTime travel
1727 CE to 1817 CE
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8 place stories are visible in this time window.
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1779 - Kealakekua Bay
Place story available
At Kealakekua Bay, a navigator who mapped more of the world than any man alive sets down his account before the morning that will end everything.
Alive in this timeline around 1785 / story span 1740s-1786
Connected to 1 life including Frederick the Great.
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1727 to 1817 across the atlas
1779 - Kealakekua Bay
1780 - Vienna
1785 - Sanssouci
1790 - Philadelphia
Decades
1780 - Vienna
Place story available
Maternal myth, bodily decline, and authority resisting sentimental reduction.
In Vienna, with her body failing, an empress who held together an empire through sixteen pregnancies reflects on the cost.
1785 - Sanssouci
Place story available
Intellectual pride, bodily siege, and legend resisting simplification.
At Sanssouci, in his last year of clarity, a warrior-king reflects on what Prussia cost him and what it will become without him.
1790 - Philadelphia
Place story available
Usefulness, public myth, old age, and the accounting of self.
In Philadelphia, the most practical man of the Revolution reflects on what independence actually required — and what it didn't.
1793 - Conciergerie, Paris
Place story available
Scapegoating, mythmaking, and a queen resisting reduction to symbol.
Waiting for the blade in the Conciergerie, a queen dismantles the lie that she was ever in control.
1794 - Luxembourg Prison, Paris
Place story available
Under guard in the Luxembourg Prison, a chemist who transformed science waits to learn whether the Revolution will let him live.
1796 - Tsarskoye Selo
Place story available
Succession paranoia, political memory, and power defended through paperwork.
With succession turning every drawer into a point of danger, an empress writes what her court was built to conceal.
1797 - London
Place story available
Weak from childbirth and aware the fever is winning, the author of the first argument for women's rights writes her last account.
1799 - Mount Vernon
Place story available
Retirement, republican virtue, and the afterlife of command.
In his last year at Mount Vernon, the father of a nation admits what the republic asked of him — and what it took.
1802 - Fort de Joux
Place story available
Under guard in the cold stone of Fort de Joux, the man who led the only successful slave revolution in history writes what Napoleon's prison was designed to erase.
1804 - New York
Place story available
In the summer before the duel, the architect of American finance sets down what the republic he built will never credit him for.
1805 - London
Place story available
With his body failing faster than his office, Britain's youngest prime minister reflects on the weight of leading a nation at war.
1814 - Malmaison
Place story available
Displacement, memory, and a life being arranged for other people's comfort.
At Malmaison, with Europe rearranging itself, an empress who was discarded sets down what Napoleon never acknowledged.
State-building, incompletion, and fury at relapse.
The reforming ruler whose Russia Catherine inherits and extends.
A tsar who dragged Russia into the modern world now watches lesser men prepare to undo everything.
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30 BCE - Alexandria
monarchy-and-court
A contrasting life shaped by monarchy and court.
The last pharaoh of Egypt watches her kingdom dissolve, and sets down what Rome will never understand about power.
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