This has always fascinated me. The first powered flight was by the Wright Brothers on December 17 1903. Wilbur and Orville’s flight lasted 12 seconds and 180 feet.
Almost 66 years later (July 16th 1969), the Apollo 11 spaceflight first landed man on the moon.
I read in a museum once that if all human advancements were measured on the hour face of a clock, the biggest developments took place during the final few seconds of the hour.
I guess that is debatable because there have been so many great moments – discovery of fire, the wheel, communicating in writing, printing presses, mathematics, paper, sanitation systems, the discovery of bacteria, vaccines, astronomy, navigation – that we had to pass through to get where we are today.