Shortly after seizing control of the Eastern Roman Empire, Flavius Basiliscus alienated his supporters by promoting Miaphysitism—a doctrine which holds that in the person of Jesus there was but a single nature that merged both the human and the divine rather than a dual nature. Consequently, his rule lasted just 20 months. Earlier in his career, Basiliscus led the disastrous invasion of Vandal Africa, one of the greatest military operations in history. How many ships and soldiers were involved? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
In 1830, bare-knuckle prizefighter Simon Byrne, Ireland’s heavyweight boxing champion, fought Alexander McKay, the “Champion of Scotland,” for the right to challenge England’s heavyweight champ. McKay died of a head injury shortly after losing the lengthy fight, and Byrne was charged but later cleared of manslaughter. Three years later, Byrne fought England’s champion, James Burke. After 3 hours and 99 rounds, Byrne was knocked out. He died days later. What became of Burke after the fatal fight? 
The day known as St. Elmo’s Day is actually 
Martha Washington was the wife of first US president George Washington. They married in 1759, nearly two years after the death of her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. During the American Revolution, she spent winters in army camps with her husband and organized a women’s sewing circle to mend clothes for the troops. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she is considered the first “First Lady” of the US. She is also the only woman whose portrait has appeared on what? 
Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and fruit-flavored hard candy known for its colorful packaging. It was created in 1912 by the father of the poet Hart Crane, Clarence Crane, who was in search of a new summer candy. The pill manufacturer he contracted to press his new line of hard mints found that production improved when the mints were stamped with a hole in the middle. What flavor of the candy exhibits “triboluminescence?” 
Dyer was an English Quaker who was hanged in Boston after repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. Her death and those of the three other “Boston Martyrs” led to the easing of anti-Quaker laws in Massachusetts. Years earlier, in 1637, after Dyer had given birth to a stillborn fetus and buried it privately, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had the “monstrous birth” publicly exhumed to serve as evidence of the heresies of what religious doctrine? 
Monroe was an American actress, world-famous sex symbol, and cultural icon. The onetime model made her screen debut in 1948 and was at first patronized by critics, but she studied acting and eventually won more challenging roles. Her private life, including her marriages to baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, has been subject to intense scrutiny, and her death from a barbiturate overdose at age 36 only increased her mystique. Why was her childhood particularly tumultuous?