Chronicles of the Past
What was the first transcontinental flight? Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly made the first nonstop transcontinental flight on May 2–3, 1923, in the T-2 transport. They took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, and landed at Rockwell Field, San Diego, 2,470 miles and just under 27 hours later. When was the first transcontinental passenger …
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Did nutmeg cure the plague? Nutmeg’s value wasn’t just culinary; it was believed to have medicinal properties, including as protection against the bubonic plague that periodically wiped out large chunks of the population. What stopped the bubonic plague? It is not clear what made the bubonic plague die down. Some scholars have argued that cold …
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When did Stalin confiscate guns? The December decree of the CPC of 1918, “On the surrender of weapons”, ordered people to surrender any firearms, swords, bayonets and bombs, regardless of the degree of serviceability. The penalty for not doing so was ten years’ imprisonment. When did Mao Zedong say political power grows out of the …
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Why did Xerxes cross the Hellespont? Xerxes Scourges the Hellespont : The Persian King felt that a lord of his majesty should not have to take any nonsense from an overgrown river. This jetty pokes out into the Hellespont, looking east towards the Gallipoli peninsula on the left (in Europe) and the mainland of Turkey …
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How was science affected by ww1? Along with chemical weapons and explosives, WWI saw the development of chemical inventions with a much broader use in society. Trenches were fairly enclosed and were difficult to evacuate quickly, making them susceptible to chemical attack. Why did Germany produce so many scientists? Why has Germany produced so many …
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Why is Jordan shaped the way it is? The unusual shape of the borders (sometimes referred to as Winston’s Hiccup) served to stop Wahhabi expansion to the west, by blocking Saudi Arabia’s land corridors to Syria, Palestine and Egypt. How did Jordan get its borders? In 1965 Jordan and Saudi Arabia concluded an agreement that …
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How were ww1 posters made? The majority of the posters created during the Great War were produced by means of chromolithography, a process that produces rich colors and expressive line work. These posters are very different from the war posters of later eras that were mass produced using faster and cheaper offset printing techniques. How …
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What was the role of the caste system in India? The caste system has existed in some form in India for at least 3,000 years. It is a social hierarchy passed down through families, and it can dictate the professions a person can work in as well as aspects of their social lives, including whom …
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What Defence systems did medieval Europe have? In the Medieval period besieging armies used a wide variety of siege engines including: scaling ladders; battering rams; siege towers and various types of catapults such as the mangonel, onager, ballista, and trebuchet. Did castles have trebuchets? The first recorded use of a trebuchet is in Europe in …
Do you put wine in an ice bucket? There’s a good reason sommeliers put your bottle of white wine in an ice bucket after they pour your first glass: If you’ve got a big enough container and enough ice, you can surround your wine with icy-cold water, which is always going to cool it faster …
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