ON THIS DAY: 13 September 1848 – Phineas Gage survived a large iron rod blasted through his head. Phineas Gage was supervising the construction of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad near Cavendish, Vermont, where his crew was blasting rock to prepare the railway bed. The process involved drilling a hole into the rock, filling it … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 7 September 1901 – China signs the Boxer Protocol formally ending the Boxer Rebellion. The agreement imposed devastating terms on the Qing Empire, leaving China humiliated, heavily indebted, and under greater foreign influence than ever before. By the end of the nineteenth century, China had suffered a series of military defeats and … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 22 September 1909 – RMS Mauretania Wins the Blue Riband Westbound. The Blue Riband was the unofficial prize for the fastest average speed during a transatlantic crossing, measured in knots. It was not a physical award in that era, but rather a coveted mark of prestige for shipping companies. Eastbound voyages (Europe … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 11 September 1978 – Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident writer and journalist, was assassinated in London in one of the Cold War’s most notorious acts of covert murder. After defecting from communist Bulgaria in 1969, Markov became a powerful voice against the regime of leader Todor Zhivkov. He worked with the BBC … Read more
ON THIS DAY: 1 September 1914 – The world lost its last passenger pigeon when Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. Named after First Lady Martha Washington, she lived to be about 29 years old and became a symbol of one of the most dramatic extinctions in modern history. Passenger pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius) … Read more
John Bacon Curtis from Hampden, Maine, USA, produced the first commercially available chewing gum, calling it ‘The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum’. Chewing gum has been enjoyed in Central and North America for thousands of years. The Mayans and Aztecs used chicle, a natural tree gum, and the Native Americans chewed on a resin … Read more
Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, which had first been introduced 170 years earlier by Pope Gregory XIII in February 1582. As a result of this change, Britain lost 11 days from the calendar as the country fast-forwarded from early to mid-September in a matter of hours. Prior to this, Britain had been using the Julian … Read more
Michelangelo’s magnificent sculpture of David was unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Sculpted from a massive block of marble, it took Michelangelo nearly three years to complete—at which point he was still only 29 years old. Intended as an image of the boy who defeated the giant Goliath, it has become a symbol … Read more