Self-taught engineer Percy Spencer discovered the cooking potential of microwaves in the 1940s. While working on magnetrons for the Raytheon Company, he noticed that a peanut butter chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. He determined that microwaves emitted from his magnetrons had cooked the candy bar and confirmed this theory by testing it on popcorn. Raytheon patented Spencer’s microwave oven in 1945 and put it on the market in 1947. What was the first food to explode in a microwave? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Taiiku-no-Hi, or 
A skilled American racecar driver, Rickenbacker entered World War I as a driver but soon became a fighter pilot. He shot down 26 enemy aircraft, earning the Congressional Medal of Honor and the moniker “Ace of Aces.” After a failed foray into automobile manufacturing, he ran several airlines for General Motors and eventually acquired one of them. In 1942, his plane was lost while on a tour of military bases in the Pacific, and he was presumed dead, but he was rescued after how many days adrift? 
The Piraeus Lion is a white marble statue that stood in the ancient Athenian harbor of Piraeus and served as a famous landmark from about 100 CE on. Looted by Venetian naval commander Francesco Morosini in 1687, it is today on display at Italy’s Venetian Arsenal. The lion is most notable for the two lengthy runic inscriptions carved on its sides by Scandinavian mercenaries in the 11th century. There have been several attempts to decipher and translate the text, which scholars believe says what? 
Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist and human rights activist well known for her opposition to the Russian government’s role in the Chechen conflict and her criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, notably in her book Putin’s Russia. Her controversial work sparked numerous death threats against her, and she was shot to death in an elevator in her apartment building on October 7, 2006. Her murder, which remains unsolved, coincided with what other occasion? 
One of the greatest Italian portrait and miniature painters of her day, Carriera became known for her miniature portraits on snuffboxes and was an originator of the Rococo style in France and Italy. By the time she was 30, she had been elected to the Academy of St. Luke in Rome, the Academy of Bologna, and the Florence Academy. As her career progressed, she gained a reputation for her pastel portraits and was even commissioned to create one of King Louis XV. What tragedy befell her late in life? 
Bethlem Royal Hospital is the oldest institution for the care and confinement of the mentally ill in England and one of the oldest in Europe. First founded as a priory in 1247, the building was converted to a hospital around 1400. A distortion of the hospital’s name gave rise to the word “bedlam,” which was once used as a generic term for a psychiatric hospital and has since been applied to any scene of turmoil and confusion. What notable patients have been housed at Bethlem Royal Hospital?