The allied governor of the city of Modena (Modena District) is appointed: he is the American Harris A. Schmitt; the provincial governor is the British Robert W. Whineray; the political parties agree on the mayor, the worker Alfeo Corassori (PCI), the deputy mayors, Count Giuseppe
Portugal. The country’s only exportable commodity is tungsten. The reason is that this element was used by the Nazis for steel in their weapons (replacing molybdenum in Big Bertha from the previous war, a US monopoly). Repeated pressure came from overseas, and then from Churchill.
The two-and-a-half-year siege of Leningrad begins: the number of Russian civilian casualties will be four times that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, or 35 times that of the bombing of London. More Russians died in Leningrad than Americans in all the wars ever fought by
Soviet spies in London obtain possession of a joint Anglo-American report on nuclear reactors and uranium purification.
Gödel’s Theorem was first announced at the Philosophy of Science Conference in Königsberg, Germany (Hilbert’s home). The reception was tepid, so much so that it wasn’t even mentioned in the conference proceedings. But another genius recognized the implications of Gödel’s work: von Neumann (one genius
At Aunt Effie’s Farm in Auburn, Massachusetts, Robert Goddard conducted the first liquid-fueled rocket launch. Shortly after moving to Roswell, New Mexico, he made substantial progress and reached an altitude of 7,500 feet.
Italian MAS sinks the Austrian battleship Szent Istvan in the waters of Premuda Island.
Russian Empire. First Chisinau Pogrom. The Chisinau pogroms (Russian: Кишинёвский погро́м; Yiddish: קישינעוו פאגראם) were two separate antisemitic pogroms, the first on April 19–20, 1903, and the second on October 19–20, 1905, in Chisinau, the future capital of Moldavia, then part of the Russian Empire.
Australia. In 1893, Irishman Patrick Hannan and two other traveling companions set up camp in a makeshift site because one of their horses had lost its shoe. They discovered a gold deposit so rich that they dug nuggets out of the ground. They applied for
Thomas Alva Edison conceived the phonograph, drew it on a piece of paper, and gave his collaborator Kruesi a written order to make it a reality.
Battle of Chickamauga (Indian for “River of Death”). The Union Army of the Cumberland is defeated and forced to retreat into besieged Chattanooga. The Union loses 11,613 soldiers, and the Confederates 18,947 killed or wounded. It is perhaps the bloodiest battle of the war and
General Lee’s Counteroffensive: Richmond, Seven Days’ Battle. Confederate General Robert Lee drives Union General George B. McClellan’s troops away from the capital, Richmond.
The Sea Islands between Charleston and Savannah are captured by the Union Navy. But McClellan’s strategic management of the war rightly fails to satisfy President Lincoln, who even considers inviting Garibaldi to command a Federal army. The Hero of Two Worlds, while always having loved
Alfred Wallace and Henry Bates, inspired by Darwin’s book A Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World, set out on an expedition to the Amazon, financed by collecting rare specimens of insects and butterflies to sell to collectors.
Yasnaya Plyana, Tula Governorate, Russia. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is born. He is the fourth of five children of Nikolai I. Tolstoy and Princess Marya N. Volkonskaya.
Russia. The weather is playing a nasty trick on Napoleon’s retreating army: after heavy snowfall in the previous days, there’s now a temporary rise in temperatures, causing the ice on the Berezina to melt, significantly hampering the journey. And in December, temperatures will drop to
Mississippi Plain and eastern coast of North America, now the Eastern United States. Domestication of plants such as sunflowers, also understood as the selection of the most suitable species and thus the involuntary genetic modification of the species, begins, but domesticated animals are completely absent.
First appearance of the genetic anomaly of blond hair and light eyes
First evidence of seagoing vessels in the Mediterranean. However, Australian Aborigines had already developed this technology nearly 40,000 years earlier! In fact, they first reached Australia from the Indonesian islands 50,000 years ago. Even from the closest islands to Australia (Timor and Tanimbar), the new
First evidence of Homo sapiens using ochre for ornamental or medical purposes. One conjecture is that they imitated certain animal species, such as the bearded vulture, which may have done so because ochre, when exposed to sunlight, produces chemicals that kill bacteria and viruses.
Deposition of a layer of debris carried by the Po and its tributaries begins, which will form the Po Valley; the layer is 1000 to 2000 m deep and is deposited, in the South, on rock formations dating mostly back to the Mesozoic (247-65 million
Thirty million years ago, one of the first hominid species, Nsungwepithecus, developed in Europe. In Africa (Tanzania), the first hominid species (Rukwapithecus, which would give rise to orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans) developed only five million years later. Hominids in Africa failed to compete with
Most oil fields are formed at the bottom of stagnant waters (Siberia, Middle East, North Sea); there are 1500 of them, of which 600 are large, 125 very large, 40 enormous (they make up 50% of the world’s reserves and 26 are in the Persian
The supercontinent Columbia (or Nuna or Hudsonland or Hudsonia) is formed and split; it is composed of the cratons: Laurentia, Baltica, Ukraine, Amazonia, Australia, and perhaps also Siberia, North China and Kalahari.