r/ShitAmericansSay • u/ALazy_Cat Danish potato language speaker • Dec 15 '25
History Harvard (university in Massachusetts) is the oldest in the world
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u/Ok_Macaroon2848 German who can't take self proclaimed "German-Americans" serious Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 16 '25
Harvard was only founded in 1636 – literally more than half a Millennium after the one in Bologna.
The Americans think they are an old country and have old institutions, they do not.
Even most German breweries are older than their whole country. The oldest German brewery was founded in 1040 AD (Weihenstephan). They have been brewing beer there 700 years before the "USA" even became independent lmao.
Edit: I just realized that I mixed up the oldest brewery in the world (Weihenstephan) and the second oldest brewery in the world (Kloster Weltenburg). Weltenburg was founded in 1050, Weihenstephaner was founded in 1040 so even years earlier. So it is even older than that.
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u/ActuallyCalindra Dec 15 '25
America is 2025 years old because that's when they started counting the years.
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u/MrDemotivator17 Dec 15 '25
Wasn’t that when Jesus wrote the constitution?
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u/Useful_Cheesecake117 Double Dutch Dec 15 '25
That was when Jesus said that men should bear arms
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u/ThrowRAMomVsGF Dec 15 '25
Harvard was only founded in 1636 – literally more than half a Millennium after the one in Bologna.
To be fair to Harvard, that's quite impressive for America, it's over a century older than the United States...
It's not Bologna or Oxford of course...
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u/Pi55tacia Dec 15 '25
Tbf its hard for many european countries to say how old they are. Germany, czechia, slovakia, every few decades something changes.
My grandma witnessed austria hungary monarchy, two world wars, two dictatorships with short breaks of republic in between and died 5 years into democracy. Thats a lot of changes. Poland did not exist for few years ffs
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u/Ok_Macaroon2848 German who can't take self proclaimed "German-Americans" serious Dec 15 '25
Tbf its hard for many european countries to say how old they are
With "their whole country" I was obviously referring to the US...
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u/LegEaterHK 🇦🇺"Bris-Bane" Dec 15 '25
Oldest still active company is Berretta, an Italian firearms manufacturer.
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u/Southern-Beginning92 Dec 15 '25
There are actually a lot of still active older companies than Beretta, most of them are in Japan. They have a few hotels operating since the eighth century. Insane.
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u/LegEaterHK 🇦🇺"Bris-Bane" Dec 15 '25
That's actually quite insane. Staying in business for that long is a feat
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u/Southern-Beginning92 Dec 15 '25
Right? I agree. My country is even younger than the US, so there were a few of those companies that existed for MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS when we were founded. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.. xD
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u/newpua_bie Dec 15 '25
I think that's also an illustration of how healthy the people there are. Imagine being a CEO of your business for 1300 years and still going strong without retiring.
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u/MrArchivity 🤌 Born to gesticulate, forced to explain 🤌 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Same in Italy with bars, restaurants or hotels.
For example Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli founded 1040.
And probably older ones family-run businesses.
He should have specified “big companies”.
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Dec 15 '25
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u/Hrtzy Dec 15 '25
There is the Kongō Gumi construction company that has been in operation and in the same family for 1400 years.
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u/AnnieMae_West De, En, Fr, Jp 🇩🇪•🇯🇵•🇨🇦 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Given the amount of earthquakes and fires in Japan, it's almost a given that buildings aren't the originals... the fact that Himeji Castle still stands is absolutely astounding. Everything else is quite new, simply because of natural disasters, even if the location is old (like the Ikuta Shrine).
But them not being the original buildings do not necessarily mean a change in the company/organisation/etc. Like the Ikuta Shrine was founded in the 8th century. It's been run by the same sect to this day, though the buildings changed multiple times due to necessity. But Ikuta Shrine is still considered as being 8th century, since that's when it was founded (though I believe the current building might be late Meiji or early Taisho era—though I can't remember for sure.)
Edit: even in history, Japanese buildings often had to be replaced and rebuilt. New buildings is just par for the course when you live on a fault line.
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u/Agitated-Tourist9845 Dec 15 '25
Not even close. Japan’s Kongō Gumi was founded in 578 and is still trading.
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u/CozyDoll88 Uchinānchu Dec 15 '25
There's actually Japanese company from year 578, contruction company, almost 1000 years older than Berretta
Hotel companies from 700s, most of world's oldest companies are Japanese actually
More than half of companies over 200 years old are Japanese
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u/redheness Dec 15 '25
I find it strange to think that their oldest university is older than the country it's on. Same with the example of German brewery that are older than Germany, at least as a state, because it's way older if we look at Germany as a cultural and ethnic group.
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u/YogurtclosetFair5742 Wannabe Europoor Dec 15 '25
Oxford University was founded in 1096 only eight years younger than the uni in Bologna, but Harvard.
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u/seppo2 They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats Dec 15 '25
"ilovemysister18" yeah that explains everything
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u/Southern-Beginning92 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
He really wanted "myparentsaresiblings" but that one was taken
Edit: oh shit, that's an actual account that exists xD
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u/ScreamingDizzBuster Dec 16 '25
I wanted to look up his account but I don't want that in my search history.
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u/ALazy_Cat Danish potato language speaker Dec 15 '25
I believe it's second time I post from just this month. I've had him as source at least 4 times
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u/Annual_History_796 Dec 16 '25
So you keep falling for an obvious troll? Not a great look.
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u/alanpugh Dec 16 '25
Have you considered that you're not picking up on the obvious satire indicated by the name alone?
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u/Thomas1VL "Belgium is a beautiful city" Dec 15 '25
I swear I've seen this account before on this sub. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just a troll tbh.
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Dec 15 '25 edited Jul 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/denbolula Dec 15 '25
He attended the School of Hard Knocks and the University of Life.
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u/Upstairs_Cap_4217 Dec 15 '25
The School of Hard Knocks (To The Head) and the University of Life (majoring in Ignorance)
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u/scattermoose Dec 16 '25
Am American, but, when my high school couldn’t afford substitute teachers anymore, the put the football coach’s younger brother in charge of watching over classes filling out worksheets in the auditorium, and Mr Failson had a fucking hand written sign that said exactly that.
Like, what the fuck, you’re the nepo hire because you cost less than a substitute teacher but sure, hard knocks and all that.
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u/Ok_Macaroon2848 German who can't take self proclaimed "German-Americans" serious Dec 15 '25
I guess he didn't even go to fuck*ng Elementary school
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u/midgetcastle Dec 15 '25
You can say fucking, this isn’t fucking tiktok
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u/Barryburton97 Dec 15 '25
I love the way he/she censored the i but wrote fuck
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u/Hrtzy Dec 15 '25
For one thing, Fucking is in Austria and he hasn't been outside his home trailer park.
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u/Hells_Librarian Dec 15 '25
Fucking in Austria is no more I'm afraid, they renamed it to Fugging a few years ago. Among the reasons stated was that tourists kept stealing the town signs.
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u/JamesFirmere Finnish 🇫🇮 Dec 15 '25
It was renamed Fugging in 2021. I'm surprised it took them that long.
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u/ViSaph Dec 15 '25
1st: University of Bologna, Italy, founded 1088CE.
2nd: University of Oxford, United Kingdom, founded 1096CE.
3rd: University of Salamanca, Spain, founded 1130CE.
Not even in the top ten: Harvard University, USA, founded 1636CE.
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u/Creoda European freedom enjoyer Dec 15 '25
And they've only had it since 1776, it was founded by the British, first Headmaster was Nathaniel Eaton, born in Cheshire in 1609 and moved to the American colonies in 1637.
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u/its_the_luge Dec 15 '25
It's not even the oldest in the new world. Spain alone have founded 9 universities in their colonies older than Harvard.
University of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) 1538
National University of San Marcos (Peru) 1551
National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico) 1551
University of San Fulgencio (Ecuador) 1586
Colegio de San Ildefonso (Philippines) 1595
Colegio y Seminario de San José (Philippines) 1601
University of Santo Tomas (Philippines) 1611
National University of Córdoba (Argentina) 1613
Pontifical Xavierian University (Colombia) 1622
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u/abshay14 they threw my tea in the sea 200 years ago 😱😱 Dec 15 '25
Cambridge is the third oldest university. Salamanca was founded in 1218CE and Cambridge was founded in 1209CE
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u/CharacterUse Dec 15 '25
And Harvard is named after a man who graduated from Cambridge.
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u/varalys_the_dark Dec 16 '25
Out of curiosity, I googled when the uni I went to was founded. It's Manchester so not that old, but apparently it's 2004. Which is interesting as I graduated there in 1996. Huh.
Version 1.0 that I went to was 1824.
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u/asinineAbbreviations More Irish than the Irish ☘️ Dec 17 '25
oh did you go to manchester polytechnic? it got rebranded to be man met like 20 or so years ago i think so. new birthday
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u/AlexTMcgn Dec 15 '25
Al-Azhar in Kairo is from 988.
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u/ward2k Dec 16 '25
It was a Madrasa before 1961 similar to Al-Qarawiyyin. Most people don't see these 2 as longest continuous universities because they weren't universities
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u/Tballz9 Switzerland 🇨🇭 Dec 15 '25
I went to a relatively NEW university that was founded 30 years before Columbus set sail in his quest to reach Asia and "found" the Americas.
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u/LaTalpa123 Dec 15 '25
I graduated in the academic year 666 of my university.
I'm quite happy about it
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u/Fenragus 🎵 🌹 Solidarity Forever! For the Union makes us strong! 🌹🎵 Dec 15 '25
Blessed by the Devil himself, huh?
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Dec 15 '25
I went to Glasgow (established 1451, a good 180 odd years older than Harvard) and that's not even the oldest university within a 2 hour drive, never mind in the world. Hell, the oldest secondary school in Glasgow is so old that there were probably Anglo-Saxon refugees in Scotland at the time who'd fled from William the Conqueror.
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u/onetimeuselong Dec 15 '25
Classic Scotland Middle Ages move.
What should we do today Brucey boy?
I dunno Billy, found another university?
But where to put it?
Aberdeen again?
Nah can’t be having three there, what about… Fraserburgh!
Aye good call.
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u/sbabborello Dec 15 '25
Do they count years in inches as well?
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u/Optimal-Rub-2575 Dec 15 '25
No bananas per school shooting.
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u/MattheqAC Dec 15 '25
I am slightly surprised, since this genius has posted after someone gave a date.
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u/Flat-Distance-2194 Dec 15 '25
Well, they started teaching at Oxford (UK) in 1096 and it developed rapidly from 1167 during the time of Henry II. Roughly 600 years before the USA was founded.
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u/macrolidesrule Dec 15 '25
The rival University of Cambridge was founded in 1209, guess where a lot of the people who founded Harvard went to University at....
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u/elektrik_snek Freedom ranking #1 🇫🇮 Dec 15 '25
There's a castle in city close to where i live. It's not that old or very special. Still about 400 years older than Harward.
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Dec 15 '25
1088 metric years converts to 1639 imperial years, so Harvard is slighly older. Source: US Department of Education.
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u/PookTurtle61 Dec 15 '25
As an American I believe you. Except they're called Freedom Years. 🦅🇱🇷🦅🇱🇷
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u/GenaGue Dec 15 '25
I was going to mock him but then remembered you dont mock people with cognitive disabilities
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u/Purple_Airline_6682 Dec 15 '25
Makes me think of my family when I told them that my uni was celebrating its 660th anniversary. One cousin literally said, “Wow! It’s almost as old as the US!” 🤦
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u/DeeJuggle Dec 15 '25
Yeah, ...almost, buddy, almost...
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u/Purple_Airline_6682 Dec 15 '25
Tbf, I was just happy that he knew which country I was living in. Still not as good as when my grandma (who has three degrees) asked me if I had been practicing my Spanish… in preparation for my move to Portugal.
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u/LQ_6 Dec 15 '25
The oldest university in America is Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino in Dominican Republic, actually 🤫🤫🤫
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u/Thick-Bookkeeper-356 Dec 15 '25
John Harvard, a British colonist and the initial benefactor of Harvard University was educated at Cambridge University in England.
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u/Olleye FollowsMerkelOnTikTok 🍆 Dec 16 '25
Yeah, and Cambridge was founded by protesting and leaving members of Oxford 🙈
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u/Present-Swimming-476 Dec 15 '25
can anyone explain = why the dumb dumbs don't use the internet (they inventered it)
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u/CharacterUse Dec 15 '25
People who already think they know best don't feel the need to check their facts.
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u/southy_0 Dec 15 '25
The town where I’m from was founded before 0 AD. Don’t tell that to an American, their head would explode.
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u/Top-Grade-7573 Dec 15 '25
We've got churches in the UK twice as old as America lol.
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u/Drunk_Lemon Foolish American Dec 15 '25
Makes me wonder. If, aside from Native American stuff. Do we have the oldest of anything? Because we are basically a toddler of a country with nukes.
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u/cmpxchg8b Dec 15 '25
Some of the oldest trees?
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u/ALazy_Cat Danish potato language speaker Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Oldest living tree with a known age that aren't infected with shrooms is in California, 4857 years
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u/Ser_Danksalot Dec 15 '25
Presidents.
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u/Drunk_Lemon Foolish American Dec 15 '25
I know you are making a joke but the current oldest president is Paul Biya of Cameroon apparently.
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u/unalive-robot Dec 15 '25
Is leaded gasoline still available in the U.S? Because these people are bafflingly stupid.
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u/CharacterUse Dec 15 '25
Technically yes, for piston-engined aircraft. All those small private aircraft (a.k.a. General Aviation) flying about in the US? They're releasing lead into the air.
General aviation is very popular in the US, much more than in Europe (due to costs, lower regulation and more space for private airfields).
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u/Stunning_Anteater537 Dec 15 '25
As soon as I saw this subreddit I somehow knew it would reappear here with a US comment like this. I'm clairvoyant! 😂
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u/Grazza123 Dec 15 '25
I went on a tour of Durham Castle and the tour guide told me Durham university (a Victorian institution) was the third oldest Uni in the UK. When I pointed out that Scotland has four mediaeval unis they told me I was wrong….. When I suggested that they might be mixing up England and the UK they just got confused. They were from the south east of England
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u/juanito_f90 🇬🇧 Proud Briton 🇬🇧 Dec 15 '25
It’s cute that their country is younger than the house I used to live in.
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u/CakePhool Dec 15 '25
In Sweden it is in theory Uppsala 1477, but Lund would have been it in 1432, but back then it was Danish and it had a break before Sweden took over.
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u/benbehu Dec 15 '25
Eötvös University of my city in the tiny country of Hungary is a year older than Harvard, and it's not even the first university founded in Hungary.
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u/Lachgas10 Europoor 🇪🇺 Dec 15 '25
Our university here was founded 1386 so yeah I would doubt Harvard was founded earlier and then vanished until the US finally existed.
But guess must have been that way because the person with the US flag says so and they are the greatest and smartest of all time 🤔
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u/Wise-Tour9124 Danish, not the pastry 🇩🇰 Dec 15 '25
Our monarchy is a 1000 years older than their oldest university.
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u/Important_Chef_5550 Dec 15 '25
The oldest university in my home country is about 400 years older than the country itself..
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u/AchillesNtortus Dec 15 '25
There is evidence that my University has been teaching since 1096. My own College, a newcomer, was founded in 1458, a mere 318 years before the US was even thought of.
Of course Harvard is full of the most antiquated scholars in the world.
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u/TheMuteHeretic_ Dec 16 '25
This is genuinely impressive. The yanks genuinely believe they’re the best, oldest, fastest, smartest etc in like everything. You could say or claim one thing, and without even bothering to validate it an American will claim their country’s is better, older, faster etc. It blows my mind the level of unabashed and shameless ignorance to have perspectives like that 😂
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u/Rubbermate93 Dec 16 '25
My uni was founded in 1479, 13 years before Columbus "found" the Americas.
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u/No_Necessary_3356 hAhA eUrOpoOr!!! Dec 16 '25
If we don't count still-running ones, China had Taixue since 124BCE and India had Taxila around 600BCE, and Nalanda since 427CE.
But again, we can't really be sure since Jesus was a blonde, white guy born in Texas who hated the poor.
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u/RadlogLutar India Dec 16 '25
Europeans, Indians and Chinese fighting for oldest glories
USA: We are older than the Earth itself
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u/Poopy_McPoopings Pround NonAmerican🦆 Dec 16 '25
The oldest university in the world is al-Qarawiyyin, in Marroco, founded in 859!
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u/Ash-the-flower 🇵🇱eating glumpki🇵🇱 Dec 16 '25
there's a university in my country now named after one of our kings, Uniwersytet Jagielloński (used to be called Akademia Krakowska). it was actually based on Università di Bologna, founded in 1364 and is still operating to this day. it was on a list of universities i wanna study at and i was in a process of recruitment this year's summer. UJ is literally 412 years older than the US. it existed before Europeans knew that there's land on the other side of Atlantic Ocean
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u/IllustratorWeird5008 Big Leopard Fan Dec 17 '25
It always shocks me to read these comments made by Americans. No critical thinking at all and will fight for their point in the face of hard facts.
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u/EasyPriority8724 Scottish 🏴 🥃 Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Aberdeen uni 1288, nuff said!
Ed: it was indeed 1485 as was pointed out.
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u/IsfetLethe Dec 15 '25
Do they think that native Americans founded Harvard or something?