Um. Ok. Guess all of my professors were wrong.

Geology is a historic science. Perspective, to a geologist; pre-history is anything that happens prior to creation of the planet 4500 Ma. To a Cosmologist, pre-history is prior to the inflationary period 1x10^-32 sec post big bang. The article itself quotes "Scientists say the gamma-ray burst (GRB), the most powerful type of explosion in the universe, was 70 times brighter than any previously recorded event. So the title of THIS reddit forum claims "The brightest gamma-ray in human history hit our planet this past Fall" is not precise enough. Especially if one considers that Gamma radiation was not detected until 1903 by humans, and thus, the title is patently wrong considering the perspective of the historical argument.

Your opinion that "History" is only what is written, is a fallacy as many sciences see "history" in very different ways.

Not being an anthropologist myself, I can't say what the field considers. I am a geologist and note that history is not just that which is recorded in anthropomorphic records. Otherwise, history is only the last 5k years, and everything else was just mystical fun to note.

My comment was regarding the title, not the article.

Considering humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) evolved between 90,000 and 160,000 years ago, that would, on average, allow for up to 16 possible occurrences. I would still have to stand by my statement. Secondly, a 500 year flood does not simply happen once every 500 years, it is a statistical average, and I have seen records of 3 consecutive 500 year floods within one year. Statistics is, over the long term, useful, but useless to the individual.

"in human history"???? Um... Not happy with that. Best to say brightest recorded gamma-ray burst" vs. just being the brightest in all of human history.