Category: This day in History

In the 1830s, South Carolina residents, frustrated by agricultural tariffs, broached the possibility of secession. Tariff reform appeased them for some time, but following the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. The state’s governor immediately demanded all federal property within the state, including Fort Sumter. The firing on Sumter by Confederate batteries in 1861 precipitated the Civil War. When was the US flag raised over Fort Sumter again? Discuss

English novelist Charles Dickens wrote many books and stories about Christmas. His first, the beloved A Christmas Carol, was written in just weeks, reputedly to meet the expenses of his wife’s fifth pregnancy. An instant success, it has since been adapted countless times for theater and film. The last name of the story’s protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, has even entered the English lexicon as a word meaning a mean-spirited, miserly person. What allegedly inspired Dickens to write the story? Discuss

Epimetheus, a nonspherical body measuring about 89 mi (144 km) by 67 mi (108 km) by 61 mi (98 km), is one of Saturn’s 48 confirmed natural satellites. It was discovered in 1966 and photographed in 1980 by the Voyager 1 probe. Epimetheus and another moon, Janus, are co-orbital, meaning that they share nearly the same orbit. About every fourth year, the lower, faster satellite overtakes the other and is boosted into the higher orbit. After what mythological figure is Epimetheus named? Discuss

In 1773, American colonists led by Samuel Adams dressed as Native Americans and threw hundreds of chests of tea from three British ships into Boston Harbor. The action was taken to prevent the payment of a British tax on tea and to protest the British monopoly of the colonial tea trade authorized by the Tea Act. In retaliation, Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, which further united the colonies against the British. What American founding father called for the cost of the tea to be repaid? Discuss

American writer Margaret Mitchell only published one novel during her lifetime—Gone with the Wind—and it became one of the most popular novels in the history of American publishing. In 1939, an extraordinarily successful film version of the book was released, transferring the romantic, panoramic portrait of the Civil War and Reconstruction periods in Georgia to the big screen. The movie won 10 Academy Awards. Why did the film’s leading man, Clark Gable, threaten to boycott the premiere? Discuss

The Dayton Agreement was a peace agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War that began in 1992. The accord was the result of a meeting between Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian leaders under US auspices in Dayton, Ohio. It called for a Bosnian republic with a central government and two semiautonomous regions roughly equal in size—one dominated by Serbs and the other by Bosniaks and Croats in federation. Later signed in Paris, the accord also provided for the dispatch of what military force? Discuss

European settlers began establishing themselves as large-scale farmers in the Kenyan highlands in 1903, taking lands from local tribes like the Kikuyu and Masai. In 1920, the British designated the interior of the region Kenya Colony and a coastal strip the Protectorate of Kenya. Africans began protesting their inferior status, and the Kikuyu staged an armed revolt in the 1950s. Britain eventually put down the rebellion, but Kenya gained its independence soon after. Who was its first president? Discuss

Drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the world’s most translated document. Among its 30 articles are definitions of civil and political rights, as well as definitions of economic, social, and cultural rights—all of which are owed by UN member states to those under their jurisdiction. Since its adoption, it has acquired more juridical status than originally intended and has been widely used, even by national courts, in what ways? Discuss

The John Birch Society was founded in 1958 by Robert H. Welch, Jr., a retired candymaker, to combat communism and promote ultraconservative causes in the US. It was named for an American missionary and army intelligence officer killed by Chinese communists in 1945, considered by the society the first hero of the Cold War. Its membership reached more than 70,000 in the 1960s. Since then, it has promoted many objectives, including pressing for the US to withdraw from what organization? Discuss

In 2002, PayPal cofounder Elon Musk established the space transportation company SpaceX. In 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to place a spacecraft into orbit and successfully recover it. The craft, called Dragon, was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. In 2012, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and be attached to the International Space Station (ISS). When did Dragon begin regular cargo flights to the ISS? Discuss