Category: This day in History

Fourteen years after Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the “Catholic Monarchs” of Spain, established the Spanish Inquisition to discover and punish converted Jews—and later Muslims—who were insincere, they issued the Alhambra Decree, an edict ordering the expulsion of all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. Any Jew who did not convert or leave by the deadline faced execution. Non-Jews found sheltering or hiding Jews had all of their belongings seized. When was the edict officially revoked? Discuss

In prehistoric times, lumps of colored earth or chalk were used as markers. The so-called lead pencil—a rod of graphite encased in wood—first came into use in the 16th century. However, it was not until the 19th century that the eraser was added—an innovation that earned Hymen Lipman a patent in 1858. In 1862, he sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000. What happened to Reckendorfe’s patent 13 years later? Discuss

Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 to 1792. Having inherited a weakened Swedish throne, he established a new constitution that increased the crown’s power. His numerous enlightened reforms antagonized the nobility, and when a group of Swedish officers mutinied during his unpopular war on Russia, he reinstated absolute monarchy. Gustav planned to form a league of European monarchs to oppose the French Revolution, but Swedish nobles had him assassinated. Where was Gustav when he was shot? Discuss

The city now known as Istanbul was founded as the Greek colony of Byzantium in the 8th century BCE. Eventually passing to Alexander the Great, it became a free city under the Romans in the 1st century CE. Emperor Constantine I made the city the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330, later naming it Constantinople. It remained the capital of the subsequent Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the late 5th century and then changed hands several times. Why was it renamed Istanbul in 1930? Discuss

The Tenerife Disaster was a passenger plane accident that resulted in the highest number of fatalities of any single accident in aviation history, excluding ground fatalities. It occurred when two Boeing 747s, a KLM flight in the midst of takeoff and a PanAm flight taxing in the opposite direction, collided at Los Rodeos Airport on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people. What bombing led both planes to be diverted to the Tenerife airport in the first place? Discuss

Established in 1972, Heaven’s Gate was a cult that advocated self-renunciation, to the point of castration, as preparation for the “transition” to a new life on a spaceship, which adherents believed was trailing behind the comet Hale-Bopp. As the comet made its closest approach to Earth, 39 members of the group committed suicide. Authorities found the dead lying neatly in their bunk beds, dressed identically and wearing armbands that read “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.” Who was their leader? Discuss

Five days after John Lennon of the Beatles married the Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, the couple held the first of two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace as a non-violent way of protesting war and promoting peace. For the first Bed-In, the couple invited members of the press into their Amsterdam hotel room and then sat in bed and talked about peace. Months later, they held their second Bed-In in Montreal. What hit song did they record during the second Bed-In? Discuss

Tuberculosis, a contagious, wasting disease that commonly attacks the lungs but may affect other organs and systems as well, is caused by several strains of mycobacteria, particularly Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans. First identified in 1882 by German bacteriologist Robert Koch, M. tuberculosis is unusual because of its lipid-rich cell wall and because it divides every 15 to 20 hours, when other bacteria divide in minutes. How long does it take E. coli to divide? Discuss

Henry was an American Revolutionary leader who gained a reputation as a skillful orator. A member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he delivered his famous speech in defense of liberty to the Virginia Convention in 1775, concluding with the words “Give me liberty or give me death!” The speech is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the assembly to pass a resolution to send Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. Which future presidents were in the audience during the speech? Discuss

Malarchuk is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League from 1981 to 1992. He is perhaps best known for sustaining a life-threatening injury during a 1989 game, when two players collided in front of his goal, and one of the players’ skate blades slashed Malarchuk’s internal carotid artery. Remarkably, Malarchuk was able to skate off the ice despite bleeding heavily. He survived because his team’s athletic trainer, a former army medic, did what? Discuss