Card No. 16

The answers

1. Since 1889

   Nintendo making hanafuda flower playing cards

   Still going

   Nintendo still sells hanafuda in Japan, including Mario decks in red and black. It was founded in Kyoto on September 23, 1889, to make these cards.

2. Since 859

   A university in Fez, Morocco, founded as a mosque in 859

   Still going

   Still teaching. Guinness lists al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest higher-learning institution in the world. Fatima al-Fihri founded it, and it joined Morocco's state university system in 1963.

3. Since 1386

   A faceless iron clock in an English cathedral

   Still going

   Salisbury Cathedral's clock dates to 1386 or earlier. It was pushed aside for a new clock in 1884, restored in 1956, and still ticks in the north nave aisle.

4. Since 1919

   A US shortwave radio station that broadcasts the time

   Still going

   WWV still broadcasts official US time from Fort Collins, Colorado, on six frequencies. During minute 2 of each hour it plays an A at 440 Hz.

5. Since 1957

   The Trabant, an East German car with plastic body panels

   Done for 1991

   Trabant production ended in 1991 after more than 3 million cars. Buyers waited up to 13 years for one, and the Duroplast body was made partly from recycled cotton waste.