Hello, pedant here. More like 68 years ago. Debuted in 1957 and in service by 1964.

The M1 was designed in the 1920s (put into service in the '30s), so they're about 100 years old.

From Wikipedia:

Despite its early failures the M16 proved to be a revolutionary design and stands as the longest continuously serving rifle in US military history.[59] It has been adopted by many US allies and the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge has become not only the NATO standard but "the standard assault-rifle cartridge in much of the world."[60] It also led to the development of small-caliber high-velocity service rifles by every major army in the world.[61] It is a benchmark against which other assault rifles are judged.

It's amazing to me how many years of R&D it took to develop the M16. Of course that coincided with substantial improvements in manufacturing techniques between the end of WWII and the late 50's. Things like stamped parts and industrial grade plastics revolutionized not only weapons but consumer products as well.

A Ukrainian soldier claimed to have shot down a Russian cruise missile with a Maxim gun recently.

I guess something that can put a lot of metal into the air tends to still be capable of its job a century later.

I was talking to someone about his time in the Singapore Air Force, and when he mentioned that although the army has new rifles, the air force (or his unit at least) uses old M16s. I was like, "Oh wow, which ones? A4s? Or probably A2s, right?"

"The ones with the triangular grips."

My god.

No one tell them about HMGs.

I'm surprised that this is surprising to anyone. 50 years ago is 1975. How primitive do you imagine the 70s to be?

114-yo pistol, mine's from 2022.

The game changing effect of drones to us is what the bomber planes are to people in 1930s.

Oh, oh no…