there were
Some things existed
There were is the past tense of there are, used to assert the existence or presence of multiple things: There were three cars in the driveway, There were no survivors.
The construction places emphasis on existence itself rather than on what exists.
In casual speech, there was sometimes substitutes even with plural subjects: There was a lot of people there.
- existedHad being previously
- occurredTook place in time
- happenedCame into being
- took placeCame to pass
- aroseCame into existence
once · in the beginning · was · past · back in the day · transpired · former · bygone · previous · elapsed · lived · presence · preceding · some · a few · quite a few · awaited · being