sub makeEvent {
    sprintf("%08d\t%s",@_);
}

@event_queue = (makeEvent($time,"Event 1"), makeEvent($time,"Event 5"), makeEvent($time,"Event 5"));
# now this works fine!
@event_queue=sort @event_queue;

##</code><code>##

@event_queue = 
    map  { $_->[0] }
    sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] }
    map  { [$_, (split/\t/)[0]] }
    @event_queue;