An early example dating from the 4th century bc is Plato's Apology, a philosophical dialogue dealing with the trial of Socrates, in which Socrates answers the charges of his accusers by giving a brief history of his life and his moral commitment.
For example, dating from the first printing presses in the 1400s, humans have maintained a vastly growing universe of knowledge and information.
One of the most striking examples dates from the mid-1800s, when Matthew Fontaine Maury of the American navy had the idea of aggregating nautical logs from ships crossing the Pacific to find the routes that offered the best winds and currents.
The first example dates from early in the fourteenth century and comes from an account of the Maldives by the Islamic geographer, Ibn Battuta.
The font a "rather florid circular" example—dates from 1864, and the church possesses Eucharistic objects dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, such as a chalice of 1568 and a paten dating from 1666.
The earliest example dates from 1547.
Documents relating to the Carolingian period speak of monumental bronze crucifixes and statues of the Virgin and of the saints, though the earliest surviving statues date from the 11th century; the crucifix in the abbey church at Werden, for example, dates from c. 1060 and was probably cast in a foundry in Lower Saxony.
The law under which Mr. Yayla was prosecuted, for example, dates from 1951 and is not even part of the penal code.
A steady drumbeat of complaints over outdated kit (the Nimrod, for example, dates from 1969), low morale and an indifferent civilian population peaked in November, when a leaked report by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the army, described troops as feeling "devalued, angry and suffering from Iraq fatigue".
