Category: This day in History

Hardin was an American desperado who claimed to have killed 42 men, one of them allegedly for snoring. He became a gambler and a gunman very early in life, but his friends and gunfighting skills helped him evade the authorities until 1877, when he was sentenced to 25 years for killing a sheriff. He studied law in prison and was released after serving 16 years. Pardoned in 1894, he passed the bar exam and began to practice law, but a local constable shot him to death a year later for what reason? Discuss

Located off what is now the North Carolina coast, Roanoke Island was the site of the first English settlement in North America. Its original colonists, sent by Walter Raleigh, arrived in 1585 but stayed only a year. A second group led by John White arrived in 1587. Shortly thereafter, White returned to England for supplies. When he finally returned to the island, he found that all of the colonists had vanished. Their fate is still unknown. What possible clue was found carved into a tree there? Discuss

Kittinger is a former command pilot and career military officer in the US Air Force known for setting a number of records, including highest parachute jump and fastest speed reached by a human traveling through the atmosphere. In 1960, as part of the Air Force’s Project Excelsior, he jumped from a balloon nearly 20 miles above the earth and fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds before opening his parachute. In 2012, 84-year-old Kittinger participated in what historic event? Discuss

The Cologne Cathedral is the largest in northern Europe. It contains the paintings of Stephen Lochner and is believed to hold the relics of the Wise Men of the East. Built in the Gothic style, it was begun in 1248 on the site of an older church. The nave and two spires—each of which is 515 ft (157 m) high—were included in the original plans but built later, between 1842 and 1880. For the next four years, it was the tallest structure in the world. What destroyed the original church in 1248? Discuss

During World War I, the US Secretary of the Navy decided to allow women to join the Marine Corps Reserve so that they could take over clerical duties being performed at the time by battle-ready Marines who were needed overseas. Johnson, who was 18 at the time, was the first woman to enlist. It would be another 25 years before the Marines began letting women fill non-clerical positions like parachute rigger, mechanic, and cryptographer. What was Johnson’s rank? Discuss

In one of the instances of violent anti-Semitism during Joseph Stalin’s regime, 15 Soviet Jews linked to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were falsely accused of espionage, treason, and other crimes. After their arrests, they were tortured and isolated for three years before being formally charged. In 1952, 13 of them were executed in Moscow on a night remembered as the “Night of the Murdered Poets,” named after five of the prisoners, who were Yiddish writers. Who were these poets? Discuss

Written immediately after World War I, the Weimar Constitution was the document that governed the short-lived Weimar Republic of Germany. It declared the nation a federal republic governed by a president and parliament and was a strong attempt to establish a liberal democracy in Germany. However, it was adopted during a time of civil conflict and failed with the ascent of the Nazi Party in 1933. How did Hitler manage to subvert the Weimar Constitution after he came to power? Discuss

The Pueblo Revolt was an uprising of Native American communities against Spanish colonization in New Mexico. Organized by a medicine man called Popé and other Pueblo leaders, the uprising led to the deaths of some 400 colonists and missionaries and forced the surviving Spaniards to retreat to El Paso, freeing the Pueblo of Spanish rule for the first time in 82 years. However, internal dissension and Apache raids soon weakened the unity of the Pueblo. What happened in 1692 after Popé’s death? Discuss

During WWII, Nagasaki became the target of the second atomic bomb ever detonated on a populated area. Three days after the US dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, a more powerful plutonium device, code-named “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki. Approximately 40,000 people were killed outright, and a total of 75,000 were killed or wounded. More than a third of the city was devastated. The necessity of the attack is still debated. The “Fat Man” was supposedly named after a character in what film? Discuss

In the early 1970s, various insurgent groups controlled about one third of Burma. Economic strife and ethnic tensions throughout the 1970s and 80s led to antigovernment riots that began on August 8, 1988—08-08-88—and led to the resignation of President Ne Win. Succeeding governments failed to restore order, and the military seized control under the name of the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Burma was renamed Myanmar three years later. What 1995 film is set during the 8888 uprising? Discuss