Since US President Donald Trump made his return to the White House a year ago, he has managed to create headlines that have sent shockwaves through the world - most recently with his claim to Greenland.
Dick Harrison, professor of history at Lund University, says that people "always stare blindly at the present" - and forget that much bigger unexpected events have happened before. Examples include the September 11 attacks in 2001, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and World War II.
"Unpredictable cuckoo"
"That things happen completely unexpectedly, that's normal, nothing strange at all. If you take a larger historical perspective, it's still relatively calm and pleasant in our part of the world," says Harrison, adding that no war has been fought in Western Europe since 1945, if you count the riots in Northern Ireland.
It's completely unique historically. Normally there's war almost all the time; now we normally have peace all the time.
What stands out now - and will be written in the history books - is that in 2016 the United States elected a "completely erratic nutcase" as president.
"And you'll probably think it's a bit of fun because it adds a bit of color," says Harrison.
"Forgets very quickly"
Harrison also points out that the fact that Greenland is currently in the spotlight is due to our geographical location - in Latin America, the conversation would probably have been about Venezuela or Mexico.
"Now he happens to stumble into our backyard and then we discover it, but he does much worse things in Latin America."
"And we forget very quickly; we are already forgetting the Gaza war."
