Category: This day in History

Juan Carlos was groomed for the role by his predecessor Francisco Franco, the Spanish leader who abolished the republic and declared Spain a representative monarchy. He acceded to the throne two days after Franco’s death, becoming the first Spanish king since his grandfather was deposed in 1931. A popular monarch, he presided over Spain’s transition to democracy and acted to maintain political stability. He competed in what Olympic event in 1972? Discuss

Funded by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), ARPANET was the first digital network that utilized packet switching, a method of data transmission. A revolutionary technology, it ultimately led to the creation of the modern Internet. The network’s first permanent connection was made between computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Stanford Research Institute. By 1983, more than 300 computers were connected. What was the first message sent through ARPANET? Discuss

In 1819, the whaling ship Essex left Massachusetts for the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. On November 20, 1820, in an incident that would inspire Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the Essex was rammed multiple times by a sperm whale and sank 2,000 miles (3,700 km) off the coast of South America. The crew took three small boats to a nearby island, but many soon set out again. Conditions in the boats worsened, and the sailors had to resort to cannibalism. How many survived? Discuss

In 1969, four months after the Apollo 11 mission culminated with the first moonwalk, Apollo 12 returned to the Moon with astronauts Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, and Richard Gordon. The craft touched down on the Ocean of Storms near the Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed there in 1967, and Conrad and Bean walked to the probe to remove some of its instruments to take back to Earth for study. What were Conrad’s first words when he set foot on the lunar surface? Discuss

Tell is a famous Swiss folk hero who is remembered in a 15th-century chronicle as an expert marksman who assassinated a tyrannical Austrian governor. According to the legend, the governor of Tell’s Swiss canton hung his hat on a stake and ordered all the townsfolk to bow to it whenever they passed. When Tell refused, he was ordered to shoot an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow as punishment. He succeeded and later escaped imprisonment to kill the governor—an event that led to what? Discuss

In 1992, a tenant farmer in the village of Hoxne, England, lost a hammer and asked a friend for help finding it with a metal detector. While searching the field, the friend discovered silver utensils, gold jewelry, and numerous gold and silver coins. Archaeologists notified of the find excavated the site the next day and found what has become known as the Hoxne Hoard—the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain. What objects are among its treasures? Discuss

The construction of the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, was authorized by Congress in 1934. In 1939, US President Franklin Roosevelt presided over a ceremony during which the cornerstone of the monument was laid. Completed and dedicated in 1943, the white marble building, designed by John Russell Pope, is a circular structure with a domed ceiling, surrounded by 26 columns. Inside is a bronze statue of Jefferson. Why was a temporary plaster statue initially erected there? Discuss

The Apalachin Meeting was a summit of some 100 Mafiosi from the US, Canada, and Italy that was raided after their fancy cars and out-of-state license plates aroused the suspicions of law enforcement agents in Apalachin, New York. Fifty-eight Mafiosi, including bosses Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese, were detained. Perhaps the most significant consequence of the raid was that it confirmed the American Mafia’s existence, a fact that had long been denied by what prominent law enforcement official? Discuss

In 1991, after a three-year investigation, US and UK authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. During a trial held a decade later in the Netherlands, one of the defendants was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whose presence on board the airplane has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories about the motivations behind the bombing? Discuss

In 1993, terrorists detonated a car-bomb in an underground garage of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing six, injuring more than a thousand, and causing more than $300 million in damage. In all, ten militant Islamist conspirators were convicted of involvement in the bombing, including Yousef, who also bombed an important Shia shrine in Iran in 1994 and later planned a large-scale terrorist scheme that included killing the pope. What alleged 9-11 mastermind is Yousef’s uncle? Discuss