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uncaringwaifu.bsky.social
#OTD in

1666: UK's Royal Society performed world's 1st blood transfusion on dogs

1927: Equitable Gas Explosion in Pittsburgh, PA, USA; world's largest gasometer killed 28

1960: "New Orleans 4", Tessie Prevost, Gail Eitenne, Leona Tate, & Ruby Bridges, 1st to integrate New Orleans, LA, USA schools
Bonus #OTD in 1889: Journalist Nellie Bly challenged Jules Verne; traveling "Around the World in 72 Days & 6 Hours" 2012: Eurozone Debt Crisis; Pan-European protests against austerity measures began -------------------- Pictured left is an 1855 oil colour painting by José María Espinosa Prieto of seamstress-spy Policarpa Salavarrieta Ríos, better known as La Pola. Top right is a colour photograph taken of the Policarpa Salavarrieta Monument in Bogotá, Colombia. Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt created the bronze statue of La Pola in 1973, mounted on a base of bas-reliefs of her important moments as well as plaques of written words like the one pictured bottom right. Essentially a headstone, the plaque translates, POLICARPA SALAVARRIETA RIOS "LA POLA" BORN IN GUADUAS ON JANUARY 26, 1795 EXECUTED IN BOGOTA ON NOVEMBER 14, 1817 TRIBUTE FROM THE ANTONIO RICAURTE MILITARY COLLEGE Another plaque has a quote from La Pola, reading "ALTHOUGH I AM A WOMAN AND YOUNG, I HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH COURAGE TO SUFFER DEATH AND A THOUSAND MORE. LONG LIVE FREEDOM WORDS ATTRIBUTED TO LA POLA, 1817" On November 14th, 1817, the Heroine of the Colombian Independence Movement, La Pola, was executed by firing squad for treason against Spain. A spy that recruited new revolutionaries and used her cover as a seamstress to infiltrate the homes of Spanish Royalists, she was instrumental in cultivating Colombia's War of Independence even though she would not live to see the War won and liberty attained. In 1967, the "Day of the Colombian Woman" was officially announced by the Congress of Colombia on the 150th anniversary of La Pola's death and has been celebrated every year since.
November 14, 2025 at 9:24 PM
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1839: Final Stamford Bull Run ended a 700-yr UK tradition

1971: NASA's Mariner 9 entered Mars orbit, 1st spacecraft to orbit another planet

1985: Colombian Armero Tragedy; Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted & killed 23k+

2015: Islamic State attacks in Paris, France killed 137 & injured 416+
Pictured top right is a black and white photograph taken during construction of the New York side of the Holland Tunnel. Beside it is a newspaper clipping from the Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle announcing the opening of the Holland Tunnel, complete with an image of a Brockway Truck driving through it. Two additional black and white photographs are below, the left image of the ceremonial handshake at the midway point of the Tunnel between New York governor Al Smith and New Jersey governor A Harry Moore, and on the right is the Holland Tunnel's New Jersey entrance and toll booth during a reconstruction in the mid-1980s. On November 13th, 1927, at 12:01 AM, the world's first mechanically ventilated twin-tube underwater vehicular tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, accepted a toll in Manhattan, signalling its grand opening to the world. With the Westbound tunnel measuring 2,608.5 metres (8,558 feet) and the Eastbound at 2,551.5 metres (8,371 feet), the newly-constructed underwater vehicular tunnel between the US states of New York and New Jersey was, at the time, the longest in the world. The first day of operation, a grand total 52,285 vehicles passed through the Tunnel, far more than the projected maximum capacity. The previous day, approximately 20,000 people walked the entire length of the Holland Tunnel over the course of two hours when President Calvin Coolidge tapped the same telegraph key that opened the Panama Canal, ceremonially opening the tunnel to pedestrians. The telegraph signal electrically rang a giant brass bell at the tunnel's two entrances, unfurling American flags on both sides of the tunnel. The tunnel's designer Clifford Milburn Holland died in 1924 before the tunnel's completion. In his honour, on November 12th, 1924, the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel was renamed the Holland Tunnel by the state tunnel commissions of New York and New Jersey. His successor, Ole Singstad, devised the ventilation system and completed the tunnel in his stead.
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 PM
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#OTD in

1948: Tokyo Trials; WW2 Japan PM Hideki Tojo, & 24 others, convicted of war crimes by International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)

1991: Dili Massacre, East Timor Genocide; ~250 killed

2023: UNFPA, UNICEF, & WHO requested end of Gaza hospital attacks; Israel violently declined
Pictured top is a newspaper clipping provided by the Pakistani e-newspaper DAWN, from November 17th, 1970 with a sensationalised headline of "1.5 MILLION MAY HAVE PERISHED" below three black and white photographs of the aftermath of Cyclone Bhola. Below and to the left is a grayscale image taken by the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA)-operated TIROS-M (ITOS-1) weather satellite on November 12th, 1970 over the Bay of Bengal as Cyclone Bhola made landfall. Bottom right is an aerial black and white photograph of the devastated coastal area of Patuakhali in southern Bangladesh on the bank of the Laukathi river, provided by Express Newspapers. On November 12th, 1970, the Great Cyclone of 1970, Cyclone Bhola, made landfall in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and India's West Bengal. Over the ensuing two days, Bhola would go on to become the deadliest tropical cyclone and one of the worst humanitarian disasters on record, killing upwards of (possibly) a million people and causing $86.4 million USD (~$718 million 2025 USD) in damages. Official estimates have the death toll between 300,000 and 500,000, making Bhola far and away the deadliest storm in world history. Additionally, the storm played an unintended role in setting the stage for the Bangladesh Liberation War the following year, when relief efforts and monetary assistance to the devastated areas of East Pakistan slowed to a trickle or stopped altogether, furthering the enmity the region had for the central government. It'd be this social and political climate that sowed the seeds of independence in March of 1971, when the Bangladesh Genocide began. Proof that most revolutions are rooted in a just cause, West Pakistan (Pakistan) attempted to subjugate the East Pakistanis through intentional systemic slaughter of native Bengalis. Despite that, on December 16th, 1971, East Pakistan won their sovereignty, renaming their newly-formed country to the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
November 12, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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1864: US Civil War; Preceding his March to the Sea, Union Gen William T Sherman ordered destruction of Atlanta, Georgia infrastructure

1865: Surgeon Mary Edwards Walker only woman awarded US Congressional Medal of Honor

1918: Poland National Independence Day

1975: Angola Independence Day
Pictured Is the Armistice Day edition of the New York Times newspaper, from November 11th, 1918, along with four black and white photographs taken on the day WWI "unofficially" ended. From the bottom left across are celebratory scenes from the United States (New York City, NY), France (Paris), and England (London). The two images pictured top right and below illustrate US soldiers' first reactions to the announcement of the Armistice while an Allied officer delivers the news to soldiers on the Western Front, respectively. On November 11th, 1918, the Great War, now known as World War I, concluded on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" with the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, in the railway carriage of Allied commander Ferdinand Foch. The treaty called for the cessation of hostilities on World War I's Western Front, thereby militarily ending the four-year conflict that officially ceased with the Treaty of Versailles in July of 1919. Two years later on the anniversary of the Armistice, France and Britain each buried an unknown soldier from the War at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London, respectively. The United States would do the same the following year at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, with the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Today, Armistice Day is known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations (Commonwealth of England) and Veterans Day in the United States, celebrated yearly as a catch-all for honouring those that served in their nation's military. For the approximately 16.5 million people, 9.7 million military personnel and 6.8 million civilians, who lost their lives between 1914 and 1918, Armistice Day serves as an everlasting monument to one of the worst events in human history.
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 PM
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1775: US Marine Corps birthed in a bar

1885: Test drive of Gottlieb Daimler's Reitwagen; world's 1st motorcycle

1975: "We are holding our own"; last message of SS Edmund Fitzgerald

1995: Ken Saro-Wiwa & 8 members of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) hanged in Nigeria
Pictured top is an 1898 black and white photograph of a mob posing in front of the burnt-out ruins of The Daily Record newspaper building in Wilmington, NC, USA. Below is another black and white photograph of the Wilmington Light Infantry machine gun crew as they pose ready to mobilise in their horse-drawn carriage. Below that on the bottom is a newspaper clipping from the Friday, November 11th, 1898 edition of the New York Herald with the headline, "WHITES KILL NEGROES AND SEIZE CITY OF WILMINGTON." On November 10th, 1898, the Wilmington Massacre and Coup began in the US state of North Carolina when the duly elected municipal government was overthrown by white supremacists who murdered nine black men in the process. Late 19th century United States coastal Carolina on the Cape Fear River was hardly a bastion of human equality, however Wilmington was one of the more progressive and integrated cities of the post-Civil War South. As a result, on November 9th, 1898, 800 white supremacists convened at the county courthouse to issue the “White Declaration of Independence” with the simple message of, “We, the undersigned citizens...do hereby declare that we will no longer be ruled, and will never again be ruled by men of African origin.” The next day, the mob set fire to the black-owned Daily Record Newspaper building, meeting up with "Red Shirt" Klansmen as well as the Wilmington Light Infantry in the ensuing confusion. They joined together to fire upon the bewildered and unarmed black townspeople, thereby kicking off the Massacre. Former Confederate colonel Alfred Waddell then replaced all black aldermen with his own people, sending the deposed leaders "out of town on a rail," while having himself "voted" in as the city's mayor, thus completing the Coup. Black citizens were forced to flee the city and, two years later, the North Carolina legislature passed the racist "grandfather clause" that effectively stripped all black people within the state the right to vote.
November 10, 2025 at 9:56 PM
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1925: Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) founded

1953: Bony Ekreachychate, Cambodia Independence Day

1989: German Reunification; Berlin Wall fell at Brandenburg Gate

2022: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair & the beard”; world's oldest complete sentence translated from 1700 BCE ivory comb
Pictured left is a grayscale map of North America, with the affected political entities involved in the Northeast Blackout of 1965 shaded in red. Two black and white photographs from the evening of the Blackout are shown to the right of the map. The top image was taken from Mission Hill in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe and the bottom image of New York City, NY commuters on 1st Avenue provided by Getty Images. On November 9th, 1965, the Northeast Blackout began when heavy electrical loads from a cold November evening caused a misoperation of a protective relay in a transmission line from Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Power Station in Queenston, Ontario. The subsequent overloads within both the southern Ontario and Northeast US transmission systems led to cascading outages that resulted in 30 million people without power for up to 13 hours. The Northeast Blackout was instrumental in establishing the North American Reliability Council (NERC) two years later. NERC has since had the task of reviewing, approving, and implementing safety and reliability standards for every bulk electrical utility on the entire continent of North America, providing guidance and certification to the roughly 6,000 people that run the continent's power grid to this day. Later, NERC dropped the "Council" portion of their moniker and replaced it with "Corporation" because it is a requirement under capitalism that all things, even reliability and safety, *must* to be monetised.
November 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
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1923: Nazi Party "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich, Germany; Adolf Hitler convicted of treason then wrote Mein Kampf during imprisonment

1965: Vietnam Operation Hump; black medic Lawrence Joel earned US Medal of Honour

1989: Douglas Wilder of Virginia 1st black man elected governor of US state
Pictured left is a black and white portrait of German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen with one of the first "X-rays" ever taken pictured to the right. Taken sometime in late 1865 of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's left hand, it is titled "Hand with Ring" in German complete with an official seal from the Physics department at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg below it. On November 8th, 1865, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, while testing whether or not cathode rays could pass through glass, accidentally became the first person to observe X-rays in his laboratory in Wurzburg, Germany. Röntgen referred to the new radiation as "X", using the mathematical symbol for the unknown. This would lead to subsequent texts sometimes denoting them as "Chi-rays", as other researchers misinterpreted the annotation for the uppercase Greek letter Chi, or "Χ". In Europe, the radiation was commonly labeled as "Röntgen rays" with the associated radiograms as "Röntgenograms". Röntgen's discovery "made the invisible visible" and would be a significant medical advancement that ultimately benefited a multitude of scientific fields in innumerable ways. As a result of his work, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen became the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics, accepting the award in 1901.
November 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
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1800: Paris, France outlawed unauthorised women in trousers

1917: Petrograd Insurrection began Bolshevik Revolution & Russian Civil War

1938: Nazi Ernst vom Rath shot; death justified 2-day Kristallnacht, harbinger of Holocaust

1944: Franklin D Roosevelt elected 4th term as US President
*US Political #OTD firsts* 1916: Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first woman elected to Congress. 1934: Arthur Wergs Mitchell, Sr of Illinois was the first black man elected to Congress. 1967: Carl Stokes elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, the first black man to become mayor of a major US city. -------------------- Pictured top is a woodcut excerpt from the 1493 illustrated encyclopedia "Nuremberg Chronicle" depicting the Ensisheim "thunderstone" meteorite's spectacular descent to Earth, with a corresponding updated and recoloured version pictured at the bottom. Pictured in the middle are two colour images of the meteorite. The image on the left shows the meteorite on display in Ensisheim's Musée de la Régence (Regency Museum), while a cross-section of the meteorite is shown to the right. On November 7th, 1492, the oldest witnessed meteorite fall with preserved material, the Ensisheim meteorite, impacted outside of Ensisheim, Alsace, France, burying itself a metre deep in the soil. Witnesses saw the meteorite's fall as a massive fireball, visible from up to 150 kilometres away. After impact , a local magistrate stopped villagers from destroying the meteorite, hoping to present it and curry favour with King Maximilian, the son of reigning Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. A piece of the meteorite was also sent to Cardinal Francesco Todeschini-Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius III, along with a number of related Sebastian Brant verses written about the incident. The Ensisheim meteorite is not actually the oldest witnessed meteorite impact in history, as that distinction belongs to the Nōgata meteorite in Japan. It is considered the earliest witnessed meteorite fall, dating back to May 19th, 861.
November 7, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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1813: Congress of Chilpancingo declared Mexican independence from Spain

1962: UN Resolution 1761 condemned South African apartheid policies

1985: Palace of Justice Siege; M-19 rebels took 300 hostages in Bogotá, Columbia w/ 11 Supreme Court justices & 100 total killed in ensuing standoff
Bonus #OTD in US politics... 2012: -Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin became the first openly gay person elected to the Senate, as well as the first woman elected to the office from Wisconsin. -Ladda "Tammy" Duckworth of Illinois was the first disabled as well as Thai woman ever elected to Congress. She'd later be the first woman to ever give birth while in office. 2018: -Sharice Davids of Kansas and Deb Haaland of New Mexico were the first two Native American women elected to Congress. -Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota were the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. -At age 29, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. -------------------- Pictured are black and white photographs provided by the US Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation of two Ryan FR-1 Fireball propeller-driven jets, the US Navy's first jet aircraft. The top image is from the flight line of fighter squadron VF-66 at Naval Air Station North Island, California, USA. The bottom image illustrates a Fireball from fighter squadron VF-41 attempting to land on escort carrier USS Bairoko (CVE-115) in March of 1946. On November 6th, 1945, US Navy Ensign JA West made the world's first landing of a jet-powered plane on an aircraft carrier. An unintentional and harrowing ordeal, as West's Ryan FR-1 Fireball lost the use of its forward piston engine that drove the propeller, forcing him to use the aft-mounted jet engine to perform an emergency landing on the USS Wake Island. Though he did catch the arresting wire meant to slow him down, West and his Fireball still ended up partially crashing as it hit the retaining barrier. A total of only seventy-one Ryan FR Fireballs were ever made, as the aircraft lacked the structural strength for carrier operations over water, marking this day in 1945 as the zenith of its two-year run for the US Navy.
November 6, 2025 at 7:57 PM
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1925: Soviet OGPU executed "Ace of Spies" Sidney Reilly

1974: Ella Grasso, Connecticut; 1st US woman governor elected "on her own merits"

1994: NASA/ESA's Ulysses; 1st-ever pass over the sun's south pole

2024: Sarah McBride, Delaware; 1st openly transgender member of US Congress elected
*Bonus* OTD in 1605: "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason, and plot. I see no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent To blow up the King and the Parliament Three score barrels of powder below Poor old England to overthrow By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match Holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring Holler boys, holler boys, God save the King!" -------------------- Pictured is the Polish Central Archives of Historical Records's copy of the Akt 5 Listopada (Act of November 5). Printed on red paper with black lettering, the left document is the original and official Polish version, while a basic English translation interposed over the same document sits on the right. On November 5th, 1916, Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria promised to create the Kingdom of Poland from Congress Poland territory via the Act of 5th November. The Act was originally designed to create a puppet state for Austria, Germany, and the other Central Powers to control and draw recruits for the ongoing war with Russia. In fact, Wilhelm held some particularly cynical designs for the area, as the German Empire had planned to expel 3 million Poles from 30,000 square kilometres (~11,600 square miles) of prewar Congress Poland to make room for future German settlements. Though the act itself was more philosophical in nature than concrete, its proclamation gave rise to a resurgent Polish push to regain its sovereignty. One that would sow the seeds that eventually bore fruit when Poland regained its independence in 1918.
November 5, 2025 at 7:22 PM
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1924: 1st women US governors elected; Nellie Ross (Wyoming) & Miriam Ferguson (Texas)

1952: US National Security Agency (NSA) formed

1956: Soviets crushed Hungarian Uprising

1960: Jane Goodall 1st observed chimps creating/using tools

2008: Barack Obama 1st black man elected US President
Pictured are three black and white photographs taken during the early days of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The top and middle images, showing the initial assault on the Embassy as well as two of the subsequent US hostages respectively, were taken the day the Crisis began. The overhead aerial shot of protestors outside the US Embassy's front gate was taken a few days later. On November 4th, 1979, the 444-day Iranian Hostage Crisis began when the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, supported by future Islamic Republic of Iran Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, stormed the front gates of the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran. The Crisis came on the heels of the Iranian Revolution and overthrow of Iran's previous king, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who fled and successfully lobbied the United States government to grant him asylum for cancer treatment. The Carter Administration were the ones to provide for his protection, much to the chagrin of the Iranian populace that wanted to see Pahlavi face the consequences of his actions. 52 of the 66 United States citizens taken hostage that day would remain in captivity for the duration of the Crisis, which wouldn't end until the inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Although not a specific stipulation as part of the Algiers Accords signed between Iran and the United States on January 19th, 1981, it was inferred that no deal could be made as long as President Jimmy Carter was in office. After all, it was Carter's decision to protect and shelter the deposed Iranian Shah and eventually allow Pahlavi to avoid extradition for the rest of his very short life, which ended in Egypt in July of 1980. The Iranian Hostage Crisis was the death knell for President Carter. Besides being unpopular in Iran, support at home plummeted for a perceived "weak" leader who couldn't even clean up his own messes or negotiate with an ally. Enter Ronald Reagan, fast forward a few decades, and now the whole world gets to suffer.
November 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
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1903: Panama Separation (Independence) Day

1906: "SOS" made official distress signal by 1st International Radiotelegraph Convention

1930: Detroit–Windsor (US-Canada) tunnel opened; 1st/only international vehicular tunnel

1978: Dominica Independence Day

1986: Micronesia Independence Day
Pictured top is a black and white photograph of Laika, the stray dog turned first space traveler, posing in her flight harness. The two colour photographs below show Laika as she "trains" in increasingly smaller cockpit simulators prior to her ill-fated and historic orbital flight. On November 3rd, 1957, Laika the Dog was the first being in world history to achieve space travel when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 into low Earth orbit. Unfortunately for Laika, it was always meant to be a one-way trip as the requisite technology to reenter the atmosphere had simply not yet been developed. As with many scientific advancements and breakthroughs, the Soviet space program was more interested in producing rapid, tangible results than dealing with questions of ethics or morality. Regardless, after launch, Laika struggled for several anxiety-intensive hours before dying from the cumulative effects of stress and overheating during the spacecraft's fourth orbit of the planet. Found as a stray wandering about the streets of Moscow, Laika was one of several unhoused dogs brought in by the Soviet space program as test subjects. Originally nicknamed Kudryavka (Little Curly), Zhuchka (Little Bug), and Limonchik (Little Lemon) she'd eventually be globally known as Laika, the Russian name for several breeds of dogs similar to the husky, but with the literal translation of "Barker." During training, she and the other canine candidates were subjected to centrifuges, living in increasingly confined cages, and fed gelatinous meals in preparation for one of them to make history. Ten days before the launch, Soviet space program physician Dr Vladimir Yazdovsky chose Laika to be the primary flight dog, deciding to take her home to his children for a final evening of play. He later recounted the event in a book on the history of Soviet space medicine, stating, "Laika was quiet and charming ... I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live."
November 3, 2025 at 7:43 PM
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#OTD in

1917: Balfour Declaration supported/progressed Zionism

1973: Lima Agreement created Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE)

2000: Expedition 1; 1st International Space Station (ISS) crew

2010: Lancaster House Agreements; UK & France signed 50-yr defense & security cooperation treaties
Pictured top is an excerpt from an Australian newspaper during the "Great Emu War" of 1932, reporting the Western Australian State Cabinet's investment in a 217 kilometre (135 mile) long emu-proof fence. Pictured below and left is a black and white image of Sergeant S. McMurray and Gunner J. O'Halloran firing a Lewis gun upon emus. To the right is a humorous image forgery depicting the "Victorious Emu Commander." On November 2nd, 1932, armed with two Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, Major Gwynydd Purves Wynne-Aubrey Meredith led Sergeant S. McMurray and Gunner J. O'Halloran of the Royal Australian Artillery's 7th Heavy Artillery into battle against 50 emus, killing "perhaps a dozen," thereby beginning the Great Emu War. After WWII, Australian soldiers were given tracts of land to farm and ranch in Western Australia. However, harsh conditions and a global economy suffering from the Great Depression hit Western Australia particularly hard. Coincidentally, the ever-present emu problem came to a head when a 20,000-strong army of terrifyingly large and agile flightless birds descended upon Western Australia, obliterating fence lines and protective barriers while consuming all the food in their path. Rabbits ate whatever was left. In response, the Australian Army sent the aforementioned soldiers and guns, along with a camera crew to document what was sure to be a swift victory. However, that never materialised as the emus were surprisingly smart in their evasive techniques, breaking down into smaller units that were harder to track during pursuits. They were also notoriously difficult to kill, requiring 10+ rounds per bird to do so in some cases. The War ended on December 10th with 986 emus *allegedly* confirmed killed and zero impact to the emu population or its destructive ways. A bounty system would be the next step, which did prove useful, however it was the implementation of the new fencing that brought about a concrete resolution to the whole affair.
November 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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1894: World's 1st diphtheria vaccine by Dr Emile Roux

1922: Türkiye abolished 600-yr Ottoman Sultanate

1952: US Operation Ivy; World's 1st thermonuclear bomb detonated

1981: Antigua & Barbuda Independence Day

1993: European Union created via Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty)
***BONUS #OTD in*** 1954: Algerian War of Independence began 1998: Protocol 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights made the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) a permanent, full-time court with easier access for individuals ---------- Pictured top is a 2004 Rita Greer oil-colour portrait of Royal Society Fellow and first Curator of Experiments, Robert Hooke, appearing simultaneously as the ancestor of both Robert Patrick and Tobin Bell. Pictured below is the world-famous black and white sketch of a flea as seen through the lens of a microscope, included in Hooke's "Micrographia." On November 1st, 1665, the UK's Royal Society published Robert Hooke's landmark "Micrographia," a tome filled with observations and drawings of previously unseen objects and phenomena. Using his own eyes, a microscope, and his underrated artistic talent, Hooke was able to faithfully recreate images and provide them to a much wider audience than just the scientific community. Additionally, the book coined the word "cell" as a biological term, with their walls reminding Hooke of the cells of a monastery. The spectacular fold-out copperplate engravings of insects, specifically the four-plated engraving of the flea, would eventually become the main attractions within Hooke's work. Besides insects and other diminutive natural things, "Micrographia" also discussed such topics of Hooke's fancy as distant planetary bodies, the wave theory of light, as well as the organic origin of fossils. Post script to Hooke's story: The aftermath of the 1666 Great Fire of London gave both prestige and wealth to Robert Hooke the surveyor and architect, as he performed more than half of London's property line surveys and was instrumental in the success of the English capital's rapid reconstruction. To that end and several others, to this day he is often revered as "England's Leonardo da Vinci".
November 1, 2025 at 8:27 PM
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1794: John Dalton 1st described colour blindness, dubbed "Daltonism"

1876: Great Backerganj Cyclone in British India (Bangladesh) & subsequent famine/disease killed 200k

1998: Iraq Disarmament Crisis; Iraq refused cooperation w/ UN weapons inspectors in response to US Iraq Liberation Act
Pictured are three colour photographs taken since 2018 of the Statue of Unity in the Narmada River Valley outside of the Kevadiya Colony in India, with the top right hand image taken the day of the statue's completion and opening. A spectacular bridge that crosses out onto the river island Sadhu Bet leads to the monument's pedestal. Rising majestically into the sky while overlooking the Narmada stands the stoic figure of Indian Revolutionary Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, commonly known as Sardar (Chief) Vallabhbhai Patel. On October 31st, 2018, the Statue of Unity in the Gujarat state of India, the world's tallest statue at 182 metres (~597 feet), was completed and opened to the public. Constructed using steel framing reinforced by both concrete and brass coating along with bronze cladding, the statue depicts India's first deputy prime minister and first home minister of an independent India, Vallabhbhai Patel. Responsible for the successful political integration of the 562 princely states of India, the "Iron Man of India" used blunt diplomacy coupled with the threat of military force to accomplish the daunting task of integrating an independent Indian State. Additionally, Patel is revered as the Indian "Patron Saint of Civil Servants," for establishing modernised all-India services once in office. Unveiled to the world on the 143rd anniversary of Patel's birth, the statue stands a full 54 metres (~177 feet) above the next-tallest statue, China's Spring Temple Buddha, and is visible from 7 kilometres (~4.3 miles) away. Five zones make up the statue, with the first three being the only ones accessible to the public. Three levels make up the first Zone that goes up to Patel's shins and includes an exhibition area, mezzanine, and the roof, complete with a memorial garden and museum. Zone 2 extends to Patel's thighs with 3 rising up to the viewing gallery at 153 metres (~502 feet) high. Zone 4 is for maintenance, while the head and shoulders make up the fifth zone.
October 31, 2025 at 5:44 PM
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#OTD in

1905: Russian Revolution; Manifesto on the Improvement of the State Order (October Manifesto) ended royal autocracy

1947: General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade signed; precursor to World Trade Organisation

1995: Quebec Referendum; 54k kept French-speaking Canadian province from sovereignty
Pictured are two colour photographs provided by Russia's Rosatom State Corporation Communications Department of the detonation of Tsar Bomba, with the top image taken at ground level while the one below it was shot from a Soviet Tu-16 observation aircraft 161 km (100 mi) away. As the sun rises to the left, causing a windshield glare that partially distorts the post-dawn blast's image, the crown of the mushroom cloud rises 65 km (~40 mi) into an otherwise unblemished sky. On the morning of October 30th, 1961, the loudest manmade sound and largest explosive device ever detonated both occurred when Soviet Product 602 exploded after being parachuted from above the northern archipelago of Novaya Zemlyain. Codenamed "Ivan" and later dubbed Tsar Bomba (Emperor of Bombs), it reached an immense 224 decibels at detonation point and was heard 780 km (480 mi) away. The initial flare was observed more than a thousand km (~620 mi) with eyewitness reports of the explosion from 800 km (~500 mi) from the site. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of 67 km (~42 mi), with its top tier possessing a 95 km (~59 mi) diameter and lower tier at a diameter of 70 km (~43 mi). The blast, seismic, and atmospheric waves created by the detonation of Tsar Bomba all circled the globe three times. Its official measured blast yield was 50 megatonnes of TNT (Mt), nearly 2 Mt more than the US's entire Operation Castle nuclear test series. More frighteningly, Tsar Bomba's blast yield was deliberately curtailed by half, as it could have reached over 100 Mt had it not been equipped with a lead tamper to reduce radioactive fallout. Given the ridiculously overpowered nature of the thermonuclear aerial bomb, Tsar Bomba was the only one of its kind ever made and was never considered for war. If anything, it was a showpiece aimed at the de-escalation of nuclear arms, as it led almost directly to the 1963 signing of the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, Outer Space, and Under Water.
October 30, 2025 at 7:22 PM
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1923: Cumhuriyet Bayramı; Turkey Republic Day

1929: Wall Street's "Black Tuesday" led to Great Depression

1948: Safsaf Massacre; IDF executed ~60 men, raped and/or killed girls

1964: Tanganyika & Zanzibar renamed to Tanzania

1969: 1st ARPANET (internet precursor) electronic message sent
Pictured top is the 1814 launching of the Demologos into the Hudson off the coast of New York City, NY, USA. In the black and white lithograph printed by Parisian "graveur et marchand d'stampes," Ostervald l'aîné (Ostervald the Elder), the Demologos steams away from the dock to the left while crossing in front of and partially obscuring another ship, just its flags and aft end pictured. A cloud of smoky steam rolls from the aft end of the Demologos, its top deck filled with passengers as an enormous center mast-mounted United States flag waves above. A row boat and leisure craft are to the right, in front and watching the launch into the New York Harbour. Pictured below is a colourised reproduction of the original print produced by an unknown artist sometime in the early 19th century and titled, "The Fulton Steam Frigate 'Manoeuvring in the Port of New York in the United States.'" On October 29th, 1814, the world's first steam-powered warship, the Demologos, launched into the New York Harbour during the war of 1812 to deter the British Navy against attacking New York City. Dubbed "Fulton the 1st" after its creator, and even changed simply to the "Fulton" upon Robert Fulton's passing, it was a 46.7 metre (153' 2") long, 18 metre (58 foot) wide wooden floating battery powered by a single 120 horsepower steam cylinder. Boasting 1.5 metre (4' 11") of reinforced timber planking armour with thirty 32-pound guns, 15 to each side, and two 100-pound Columbiads fitted fore and aft to fire below the waterline, the catamaran was both cleverly-built and well-designed. The location of the paddle wheel was even revolutionary, as Fulton placed it between two separate hulls in the middle of the ship to protect against damage from enemy cannons. Sadly, the Demologos was not a seaworthy vessel and therefore could not set sail to engage with the British. As a result, the world's first steam-powered warship never saw any action and no subsequent models were made based upon its design.
October 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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312: Battle of Milvian Bridge gave rise to Christianity

1449: Denmark's ruling House of Oldenburg coronated

1918: Independent Czechoslovak State Day

1940: Επέτειος του Όχι (Oxi Day); Greece said "No" to fascism, "Heroes fight like Greeks"

2021: Direct human ancestor Homo bodoensis named
Pictured are two colour photographs provided by the BBC, the top image is of Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute Director of Traffic Safety, Dr Astrid Linder, as she poses with the Seat Evaluation Tool (SET) 50F that was developed in Linköping, Sweden. Pictured below is the loaded and harnessed SET 50F as it sits in a car seat attached to the crash test track just prior to launch. On October 28th, 2022, a team of Swedish engineers led by Dr Astrid Linder announced the development of the first seat evaluation tool (crash test dummy) designed specifically for the body of the average woman. Designated SET 50F, the dummy measured a more accurate 162 centimetres (5' 3") tall and weighed 62 kilogrammes (~137 pounds), a far cry from the scaled down male version measuring 149 centimetres tall (4' 8") and weighing 48 kilogrammes (~106) pounds. Beyond the obvious height and weight differences, the newer dummy models put emphasis on the shape of the chest while featuring lower joint stiffness than its male counterpart. As Maria Weston Kuhn of the UN Global Youth Coalition for road safety pointed out, "the seatbelt is designed to stop a man who was thrown forward by his hard thigh bones." Dr Linder added, "Females have less muscles and a lower total strength, which correspond to a lower stiffness between the joints.” As a result, women drivers are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in a front-end collision (University of Virginia’s Center for Applied Biomechanics, 2017) and 17% more likely to die (NHTSA) than their male counterparts in similar vehicle crashes. Those figures only serve to further underscore the importance of SET 50F's development, especially in light of the fact it's been required that every vehicle for the last 60+ years be crash-tested for safety.
October 28, 2025 at 5:39 PM
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1838: Missouri Executive Order 44 declared Mormons "enemies" of the US state of Missouri & "must be exterminated"

1950: Pakistan Kashmir Black Day

1971: Congo-Kinshasa renamed Zaire

1979: Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Independence Day

1982: China 1st country w/ population of 1 billion+
Pictured top is a black and white headshot of Soviet Vice Admiral Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov in his military attire. Pictured below is a black and white photograph provided by the US Naval Institute of Soviet submarine B-29 surfacing as a US Navy HSS-1 (SH-34) Seabat helicopter hovers overhead. October 27th, 1962, "Black Saturday," was the single most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the height of a geopolitical spat that had global tensions running wild, the Soviet Union tracked and shot down a U-2 spy plane from the US that had been photographing Soviet positions in Cuba. Later in the day, a US patrol spotted the B-29 Soviet submarine off the coast of Cuba, raising additional alarms for the US. Completely unaware of the ten kilotonne nuclear torpedo aboard B-29, the US started firing off depth charges to harass the Soviet vessel. As the sweltering B-29 submarine was repeatedly jolted by US depth charges and slowly filled with carbon dioxide, the lack of communication with Moscow had stress-crazed B-29 Captain Valentin Savitsky ready to vapourise the US fleet. The stage was set for Soviet submarine flotilla chief of staff and B-29 Executive Officer (XO), Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, to become “the man who saved the world.” Cold War-era Soviet submarines required the Captain, XO, and political officers be in agreement in order to launch a nuclear device. Arkhipov's voice was the lone one of dissent against launching the submarine's Hiroshima-sized nuke, citing the US's lack of discernible aim in deploying the charges, not to mention that launching a nuclear warhead was an only *slightly* unhinged response. Instead, he convinced Savitsky to surface, identify themselves, and contact Moscow for further instruction. And surface they did, met by a US destroyer that never boarded nor inspected. In fact, the crew of the B-29 were simply turned away, allowing them to turn north towards Russia and home. Crisis thoroughly averted.
October 27, 2025 at 6:21 PM
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1863: Geneva International Conference began; led to Red Cross

1977: Last natural smallpox case in Somalia

1979: S Korea dictator Park Chung-hee assassinated; led to Yushin Constitution repeal

2015: World Health Organisation (WHO); processed meat is carcinogenic, causes colorrectal cancer
Pictured top is a colour photograph of pediatric surgeon Dr Leonard Bailey while he and his team perform surgery on Stephanie Fae Beauclair, better known as “Baby Fae”. Pictured below is another colour photograph, this one of Dr Bailey and immunologist Sandra Nehlsen-Canarrella as they conduct a post-operation evaluation while attending Baby Fae. The surgery was performed at the Loma Linda University Health Hospital in the city of the same name in the US state of California, with both photographs taken and provided by the University. On October 26th, 1984, twelve-day-old Stephanie Fae Beauclair received the first infant heart transplant, and first successful xenotransplant (cross-species organ transplant), when a team of surgeons led by Dr Leonard Bailey at the Loma Linda University Health Hospital removed her heart and replaced it with one from a baboon. Born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a death sentence in infants, Baby Fae did not have the time or resources to wait for an acceptable donor heart. The hope at the time was that transplanting a baboon's heart could buy Baby Fae enough time so it could be later replaced by an allograft. Unfortunately, Baby Fae died just 21 days later when her body rejected the new heart and it subsequently failed. The rejection was unavoidable though, as it was surmised that Fae's type-O blood created antibodies to fight against the type-AB xenograft, initiating a humoral response against the graft. As fewer than 1% of all baboons are type-O, and with Loma Linda University only having seven young type-AB baboons, the odds were unfortunately always stacked against Baby Fae. Although a "failure," the procedure paved the way for Dr Bailey to perform the first successful infant allograft heart transplant the following year. However, Baby Fae's procedure was not without its controversy, as ethical questions were raised as to whether parents should be allowed to volunteer children for experimental medical procedures.
October 26, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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1945: Retrocession of Taiwan; ROC sovereignty over Taiwan restored

1968: Haitian Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable officially recognised as founder of US city Chicago, IL

1977: Operating system VAX/VMS V1.0 (OpenVMS) released

2017: Study announced discovery of 1st ichthyosaur fossil in India
Pictured top is William Simpson's 1855 colour oil painting, "The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava" with the corresponding black and white "Key" to the painting, outlining specific positions and people, immediately below it. On October 25th, 1854, during the Crimean War's Battle of Balaklava, the English Calvary's Light Brigade mounted a full-frontal assault against the well-fortified Russian artillery battery. The Russians welcomed the foolish advance, as their guns enjoyed a mile-long, near-limitless field of fire from which to pick off the 607 horsemen, allowing them to kill 118, wound 127, with another 60 captured. 370 horses would also perish in the assault later immortalised in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's narrative poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" published six weeks later. The Charge, led by the 7th Earl of Cardigan, Major General James Brudenell, was the direct result of a misunderstood order from the commander-in-chief, Field Marshal FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, who altogether had a more suitable objective in mind for the swift, lightly armoured unit. The order was carried by Captain Louis Nolan and delivered to Lieutenant General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, with the additional oral instruction that the light cavalry attack immediately. The overall cavalry commander questioned the order, asking Nolan for clarification of the target. Allegedly, Nolan indicated with a wide sweep of his arm the multitude of Russian guns at the far end of the unprotected valley. "There, my lord, is your enemy; there are your guns." His reasons for the misinformation would forever remain unknown, as Nolan was killed during the opening minutes of the Charge. However, it was also an open secret at the time that brothers-in-law Lucan and Cardigan intensely despised one another, with more than a single thought spared on the idea that Lucan changed the order and sent Cardigan on a mission of humiliation.
October 25, 2025 at 5:24 PM
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79: Italy's Mt Vesuvius erupted; buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, & Stabiae

1648: 30 Years War Treaty of Westphalia recognised Netherlands/Switzerland independence & reshaped European politics & religion

1946: US V-2 took 1st space photograph of Earth

1964: Zambian Independence Day
Pictured is a colour oil painting by Frank Earle Schoonover, later published in the December 1908 edition of Harper's Magazine. The caption below the painting in the oversized border reads, "Painting by F. E. Schoonover THEY KEPT ON PUZZLING AS TO WHAT THEY SHOULD DO WITH HIM" In the image, Dominican Monks of the Mexican Inquisition observe and question a smug-looking and vibrantly-dressed Spanish soldier Gil Pérez as he sits in a prison cell within the old Palace of the Inquisition in Plaza Santo Domingo, Mexico City, Mexico. The illustration was paired with Thomas Janvier's story, "Legend of the Living Spectre", an updated version of the 1593 "Transported Soldier Legend" about the mysterious teleportation of a Spanish soldier 14,228 kilometres (8,841 miles) from Manila, Philippines to Mexico City, Mexico. On October 24th, 1593, the evening after Governor Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas was assassinated, Spanish soldier Gil Pérez was on guard duty at the Palacio del Gobernador in Manila in the Captaincy General of the Philippines while awaiting the new governor. Allegedly, he began to feel dizzy, leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and isekai'd himself to Mexico City in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. He was instantly approached by guards that found his out-of-place uniform curious and began to question who he was. His fantastical story saw Gil placed in jail for desertion and for being a "servant of the devil." At the time, the assassination of the Philippine Governor was not widely known, and news of such had not come close to reaching Mexico City. To his credit, Gil both knew of the death and was reportedly wearing a Manila palace guard uniform at the time of his arrest. A few months later, a Philippine galleon brought news of the governor's passing as well as an onboard passenger that recognised Gil, having seen him in the Philippines a day after the governor's death. Perplexed and powerless, the authorities released Gil and allowed him safe passage home.
October 24, 2025 at 8:38 PM
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1157: Battle of Grathe Heath; Valdemar I's victory ended Danish Civil War

1694: 26-yr Moroccan Siege of Ceuta, longest ever, began

1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf; 200k fought in largest naval battle of WW II

2018: 55 km (34 m) Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, world's longest seabridge, opened
Pictured is a colour image of a 2,400 year-old Greek merchant vessel, the world's oldest intact shipwreck. Found by an Anglo-Bulgarian team of archaeologists two kilometres (1.2 miles) below the surface of the Black Sea, the picture comes courtesy of the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP) and funded by the Expedition and Education Foundation (EEF). On October 23rd, 2018, the UK's University of Southampton-led international team of archaeologists, in conjunction with both the Bulgarian National Institute and Museum of Archaeology as well as the Bulgarian Centre of Underwater Archaeology, confirmed that one of the 65 notable well-preserved shipwrecks they had discovered on the bottom of the Black Sea has been dated back to 400 BCE, making it the world's oldest intact shipwreck. The Black Sea MAP's advanced mapping technology surveyed more than 2,000 km² (1242.7 miles²) of seabed before discovering the Greek trading vessel that had only previously been seen on the side of ancient Greek pottery pieces as the British Museum's Siren Vase. The reason for this particular discovery lies in one unique characteristic of the Black Sea, as at a depth of two kilometres the anoxic (oxygen-free) conditions prevent oxidation and decay, allowing for organic material to be preserved for thousands of years. University of Southampton Professor of Archaeology Jon Adams, the Black Sea MAP’s principal investigator, stated of the find that, “A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is something I would never have believed possible. This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world."
October 23, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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1797: Parachute 1st used; André-Jacques Garnerin descended 910 m (3k ft) from hot air balloon

1938: Chester Carlson's 1st successful experiment in electrophotography (photocopy), later renamed xerography

2004: 1st isolation of graphene, a conductive 1-layer latticework of carbon, detailed
Pictured is a black and white copy of a section of the October 23rd, 1964 edition of the New York Times newspaper that covered Jean-Paul Sartre's eyebrow-raising Nobel Prize refusal. On October 22nd, 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Peace for Literature and promptly became the first recipient in history to reject the award. This was hardly the first honour that Sartre refused, as his long-standing practice of declining official awards previously extended to his membership in the French Legion of Honour as well as a position at the Collège de France. Sartre's rationale echoed who he was as a writer and philosopher, as he believed the prize would associate his personal contributions with the Nobel Prize institution as a whole. His existentialist philosophy emphasised freedom, authenticity, and personal responsibility, informing his decision as a writer to not allow himself to be turned into an institution. To this day, Jean-Paul Sartre is one of only two people to ever turn down a Nobel Prize. The second, Le Duc Tho in 1973, also had his own personal scruples against officially accepting the award, as his came jointly with Henry Kissinger for their combined work in the Vietnam Peace Accords.
October 23, 2025 at 12:19 AM
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1520: Magellan discovered strait around S America linking Atlantic & Pacific Oceans (now bears his name)

1600: Battle of Sekigahara ended Japan's Sengoku period & marked rise of Tokugawa Shogunate

1959: 1 of world’s top modern art collections, the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, NY, USA, opened
***Bonus OTD*** -Alfred Nobel, the one human in history most closely associated with the word "Peace" even after inventing high explosives such as dynamite, was born in Stockholm, Sweden on this day in 1833- Pictured is a colour aerial photograph of the aftermath of the 1966 Aberfan Disaster in southern Wales in the UK. The path of the spoil slip's destruction is illustrated via the dark, slate-coloured area emanating from the mounds of coal mining waste (colliery spoil tips) in the background. On October 21st, 1966, the Aberfan Disaster occurred when spoil tip #7 suffered a catastrophic collapse after weeks of intense rainfall, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it smashed into a row of homes as well as the Pantglas Junior School. Located in the hills overlooking the Welsh village, the colliery spoil tips were the jurisdiction of the National Coal Board (NCB) to regulate and maintain. The NCB had failed to do so specifically with tip #7, as it had been partially built upon a natural spring. So, it came to pass that the 34 metre (111 foot) tall tip #7, already built upon unstable ground, became completely saturated when combined with three weeks of heavy rainfall. At which point, it took very little to send the 110,000 cubic metres (~140,000 cubic yards) of spoil slurry that came rushing down the side of the hill and into the Pantglas area of the village that day.
October 21, 2025 at 11:42 PM