How were stringed instruments and pianos tuned before electronic tuners?
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So tuning fork is a good answer, but it is also worth mentioning that “tuning” is only important in a given context – we have standard tuning now so that people can take a piece of sheet music and play it and have it sound the same (or at least have the same notes) as anyone who uses that same tuning.
In the times before we cared about that, it was often enough to make sure that the instrument you played was in tune with itself, your voice, and/or your bandmates. If you were all in tune with each other, it wouldn’t matter if you were exactly in tune with A440 or any other instrument in the world save for your band.
(Also worth mentioning that a lot of tuning methods mentioned are still common – using an electronic tuner is great but when tuning my guitars at home I often just tune to whatever my A string currently sounds like, ignoring if it’s sharp or flat, or if I really care use a tuning fork to tune to A440)
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