ON THIS DAY – 10 January 1897 – Ukrainian bacteriologist Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine performed the first human trial of a plague vaccine – on himself – during the devastating Bombay (Mumbai) epidemic of 1896-97. Born in 1860 to a Jewish family in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, Haffkine studied physics, mathematics, and zoology … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 2 January 1877, Charles M. Tinker received U.S. Patent No. 187,881 for a delightfully inventive device: a dog-powered treadmill designed to churn butter. Tinker’s creation worked by having one or more dogs walk on a slanted tread-wheel or treadmill-style platform. As the dogs walked – or trotted – to keep their balance, … Read more
One of the deadliest earthquakes in recorded history, the Shaanxi earthquake, struck China’s Shaanxi province. It had a magnitude of between 8.0 and 8.3, and resulted in the deaths or displacement of an estimated 830,000 people. At least 100,000 died directly from the quake, while a further 730,000 either perished in the ensuing famines or … Read more
A strange new piece of men’s apparel went on display in Marshall Field’s department store in downtown Chicago. In 1887 a Boston company had introduced the ‘jockstrap’ to protect ‘jockeys’ riding bicycles — a relatively new invention — along the city’s cobbled streets. Now, in 1935, the ‘Jockey brief’ was introduced by another firm, Coopers … Read more
An English journal, The Annual Register, which chronicled events around the world, reported ‘a very odd affair’ at the Convent of the Capuchins in Ascoli Piceno in Italy. After the monks chastised their cook ‘a little too severely’, he took revenge by mixing opium into the sauce for their supper and, when they were fast … Read more
ON THIS DAY – 24 January 1972 – An extraordinary discovery made headlines around the world. Shoichi Yokoi, a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army, was found alive on the island of Guam after spending 28 years hiding in the jungle – completely unaware that World War II had ended in 1945. Yokoi was a 26-year-old … Read more
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in the grounds of Birla House (renamed Gandhi Smriti) in New Delhi, India, on his way to conducting a multi-faith prayer meeting. His assassin, Nathuram Godse, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune in Maharashtra, was a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhi was too accommodating in the Partition of India and Pakistan. Godse … Read more
The general court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay ordered a day of public fasting and prayer for atonement because of the legal persecution of witches. Twelve of the jurors of the Court of Ayer and Terminer who investigated over 200 accusations of witchcraft signed a statement of apology for their part in the Salem … Read more
Harold Godwinson was crowned King Harold II of England. He succeeded King Edward the Confessor who had promised the throne to William of Normandy, later known as William the Conqueror, only to retract the offer on his deathbed. Harold’s reign was beset from the outset with threats not only from William but also from his … Read more