Historical Events, Birthdays And Quotations

This Day in History

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The parking meter was invented in 1935 by Carl C. Magee in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The first meter was installed there later that year, guaranteeing drivers a parking space for an amount of purchased time. Used until the 1980s, Magee's original design had a coin acceptor, a dial, and a visible flag indicating the expiration of paid time. Reverend C.H. North was the first person in the US to get a parking ticket because of an expired meter. What happened when he disputed his ticket in court? Discuss

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Chowchilla is a small California town that made national headlines when kidnappers took control of a school bus full of children in 1976. The 26 children and their bus driver, Ed Ray, were driven around in two vans for 11 hours before being forced into a moving van buried in a quarry. After 16 hours underground, Ray and the children managed to escape. All were safely returned home, and the kidnappers were soon arrested. Who were they?

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Originally built in the 9th century, St. Mark's Campanile is the 323-foot (98.6-m) bell tower of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy. It has been damaged many times in its history, including by fire and an earthquake. In 1902, a crack appeared in its north wall. On the morning of July 14, the campanile collapsed. Remarkably, no one was killed by the collapse, and only one building was damaged. Reconstruction of the campanile was completed in 1912. What was the one casualty of the collapse?

In the News

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The koala is an unusual creature. Native to Australia and a bit bigger than a raccoon, it spends most of its time in eucalyptus trees, gorging on leaves that are toxic to nearly every other animal on the planet. The koala sleeps about 22 hours a day ... Discuss

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Space is full of grease-like molecules, according to a new study that attempted to mimic interstellar dust in a laboratory. The study, conducted by the University of New South Wales in Australia and Ege University in Turkey, sought to better estimate ...

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The Earth and Mars are a bit like fraternal twins that slowly grew apart. Four billion years ago, both planets were warm, sheathed by protective atmospheres, and carved with rivers and pools of liquid water. But today, Mars is an irradiated desert ...

Today's Birthdays

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Amundsen was a Norwegian polar explorer who led the first expeditions to traverse the Northwest Passage and to reach the South Pole. Turning to air exploration, in 1926 he and Umberto Nobile succeeded in flying over the North Pole and unexplored regions of the Arctic Ocean in a dirigible built and piloted by Nobile. A bitter controversy followed with Nobile as to the credit for the success. Yet in 1928, when Nobile crashed a different dirigible, Amundsen launched a rescue mission. What happened? Discuss

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

An Irish-born novelist and philosopher, Murdoch studied at Cambridge under prominent philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein before pursuing a career in writing. Her novels focus on the idea that free will is illusory and depict humans as "accidental" creatures, seemingly free but actually bound to self, society, and the natural world. She penned 26 novels and many philosophical works before Alzheimer's ended her writing career. To what non-medical condition did she initially attribute her symptoms?

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Pankhurst was a leading British suffragette. In 1889, she founded the Women's Franchise League, which in 1894 secured for married women the right to vote in local elections. She later advocated militancy, mainly in the form of arson, and was once arrested 12 times in a year. During World War I, she organized a rally of 30,000 women to encourage employers to let men fight while women did their jobs in England. Pankhurst also founded the Women's Social and Political Union, whose motto was what?

Article of the Day

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

King Philip's War was, proportionately, one of the bloodiest and costliest conflicts in America's history. By 1660, New England settlers had pushed into Native American territory in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. To protect their lands, Wampanoag chief Metacom—also known as King Philip—organized a federation of tribes, which destroyed several frontier settlements in 1675. In retaliation, the colonial militia burned villages and crops. How many people died in the conflict? Discuss

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

One of the most famous antiheroes in fiction, Captain Nemo is an enigmatic character featured in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. A scientific genius, Nemo roams the depths of the sea in his submarine, the Nautilus. Though he projects a stern confidence, he is driven by a thirst for vengeance and, at the same time, is wracked with remorse over the deaths of his crew members and even his enemies. What does "Nemo" mean in Latin?

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The use of psychedelic agents in Western psychotherapy began in the 1950s, after Sandoz Laboratories, the manufacturer of LSD, began distributing it to researchers. Concern over the unauthorized use of psychedelics by the general public, however, led to widespread bans in the 1960s. Since then, the study of psychedelic psychotherapy has been limited. In recent years, investigators have studied the possibility of treating post-traumatic stress disorder with the drug MDMA, commonly known as what?

Quotations of the Day

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. Discuss

Sun, 15 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

We are not rich in the bank, but we have always prospered, and we have quite enough. I never walk out with my husband but I hear the people bless him ... I never lie down at night but I know that in the course of that day he has alleviated pain and soothed some fellow-creature in the time of need ... Is not this to be rich?

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world ... but people don't know what it is like or how to make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen until you make them happen.

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