Facebook Timeline pages for brands launched Wednesday, and some more elderly brands -- such as Princeton and the U.S. Army -- are starting to notice they predate Facebook's 1800 barrier. That's not a problem for personal Facebook users, unless there are some time travelers, vampires or Highlanders among us.
So far, brands that have been around longer than two centuries are making do with the limitation. They've got no choice -- brands that make the switch can't go back to the old profile design. All brand pages will be forcibly changed by the end of March.
"At this time, this page only allows us to go back to 1800," reads the U.S. Army's earliest milestone marker. "However, we were 'founded' in 1775."
Princeton University's social media coordinator noted a similar issue in a tweet:
@mashable Interesting issue with brand pages. I'm doing the history for @Princeton, and FB's timeline ends at 1800. We go back to 1746 #oops— Ian Cahir (@iancahir) March 1, 2012
The U.S. Navy has the same problem, but its "birth" post doesn't directly mention Facebook's 1800 limitation.
"On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America," reads the Navy's post. "This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy."