Stories

In 1917, Australian trooper Samuel Rolfe, a farmer from Inverell, was exposed to mustard gas near Albert, France.

Born near Lyon around 1772, Tarrare’s appetite was evident early. By his teens, he could eat a quarter of a bullock in one day.

On September 7, 1964, Americans saw a young girl counting daisy petals on TV—then a countdown began, followed by a nuclear explosion.

In 1975, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell offered Steve Jobs $750 to build a prototype for a new arcade game—Breakout—with a bonus for using fewer than 50 logic chips.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar staged a battle on water without ever setting sail. He ordered a basin dug beside the Tiber River, filled it with real warships—biremes, triremes, and quinqueremes—and forced 2,000 prisoners to fight. This was the first naumachia, a brutal new form of public entertainment.

In June 1864, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed a law protecting Yosemite Valley—marking the first time the U.S. government preserved land for public use.

Dueling arrived in North America in 1621, when two servants in Plymouth fought with swords and both survived. Over time, the practice evolved into formal affairs governed by the Code Duello, which required specific rules, seconds, secluded locations, and the challenged party’s choice of weapons.

Gertrude Ederle made history on August 6, 1926, when she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

On January 10, 1992, a container ship en route from Hong Kong to Washington lost twelve cargo containers during a storm in the North Pacific.

In July 1864, Union soldier John Wales January was captured during a cavalry raid near Macon, Georgia. He was sent to the infamous Andersonville prison, later transferred to Charleston, then Florence, South Carolina. There, scurvy and gangrene set into his feet and lower legs.