WasThatBefore

About WasThatBefore

WasThatBefore is a daily timeline puzzle. Each numbered puzzle has a theme, such as Exploration, and five event cards with a small picture and a label for history, science or sport. You drag them into chronological order, earliest at the top and latest at the bottom.

When you lock in an order, each card lights green if it is in the right place and red if not, and you have three attempts to get them all right. Hard mode, switched on before your first guess, gives no feedback between attempts but scores one and a half times as much for a correct order. Points go towards a rank, and a streak counts your days.

The site's line is that most people get it wrong: events from different fields are hard to set against each other, so knowing the date of a railway, a book and a sporting first separately is not the same as knowing which came first.

Alongside the Global puzzle there are separate daily editions for the USA, the UK, the EU and Australia with their own events, a calendar of past puzzles and a random option.

How to play WasThatBefore

1. Pick an edition: Global, USA, UK, EU or AU.
2. Drag the five event cards into order, earliest at the top.
3. Press Lock it in: each card turns green if it is in place, red if not.
4. Rearrange and try again; you have three attempts.
5. Switch on Hard mode before your first guess for no feedback and a higher score.

Screenshots

Tips

• Anchor the order with the one event you are surest of, then place the others around it.
• Think in centuries first and years second.
• Use the category labels: a science and a sports event are easy to misjudge against each other.

Questions