Bit of Everything
The first and last soldiers killed in this war are buried next to each other
What is World War I
Mark Twain's birth and death both coincide with this astrological phenomenon
What is Halley's Comet
Mexico suffered from three major earthquakes which all fell on this date during different years
What is September 19th
Less than a year before John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s brother Edwin saved the life of this one of his family members
Who was his eldest son, Robert
These two American presidents died on the same day just hours apart
Who were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
After the assassins after Archduke Franz Ferdinand failed to kill him the first time, one of the assassins went to get one of these which allowed their second attempt to succeed due to Ferdinand's driver taking a wrong turn and bringing him right to the assassin who left.
What is a sandwich
Fourteen years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertson wrote this novella about the large unsinkable ship "Titan" hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic. Both the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board
What is Futility
A father and son were the first and last casualties respectively during the construction of this
What is the Hoover Dam
10-Year-Old Laura Buxton released one of these only for another 10-year-old also named Laura Buxton to find it
What is a red balloon
In Finland in 2002, a man was killed in a car accident while trying to cross Highway 8 on his bike. Two hours later, this related man was killed in the same way trying to cross the same road
Who was his twin
Due to memory limitations, the the 2000s game Deus Ex excluded these and made an in-game explanation of a terrorist attack which actually ended up happening not long after the game came out
What were the Twin Towers
On March 12, 1961, a character named this debuted in the British comic “The Beano.” A few hours later, on the other side of the Atlantic, a new newspaper comic strip titled with the name of this character was published
What is Dennis the Menace
This man was in Hiroshima when the first atom bomb was dropped. He then traveled home to Nagasaki the day before the second atom bomb was dropped
Who was Tsutomu Yamaguchi
Esther Grachan wrote on this hoping to find a husband only for it to be found by her then boyfriend and future husband a few years later only to resurface again after marriage
What is a dollar bill
This man incorrectly decoded a message from Galileo Galilei that was supposed to inform him that he had observed that Saturn had rings, instead interpreting it as him saying that Mars had two moons. Centuries later, he was proven right
Who was Johannes Kepler
On June 18, 1941, Soviet archeologists opened up this Mongolian conqueror's tomb which had a warning inscription that read “Whoever opens my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I.” Two days later, on June 22, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
Who was Tamerlane
Novelist Anne Parrish bought one of this, and it turned out that it used to have been owned by her when she was a child
What is a book (Jack Frost and Other Stories)
This individual survived being aboard three separate sinking ship disasters (the Titanic, the Olympic, and the Britannic)
Who was Violet Jessop
This French poet encountered the man who introduced him to plum pudding every time he ate plum pudding
Who was Émile Deschamps
As South African astronomer Danie du Toit gave a lecture on how death can strike anyone at any time, he choked to death on the spot after slipping one of these in his mouth
What is a mint
This man avoided being shot by someone who was taking revenge for their sister's suicide due to the bullet getting lodged into the tree behind him. Three years later, as he was using explosives to clear the tree away, the bullet came out and shot him
Who was Harry Ziegland
This novel by Edgar Allen Poe tells the story of four crewmen on a whaling ship who end up stranded. In order to survive, the crewmen draw lots to see who among them should be eaten, landing on their cabin boy, Richard Parker. Forty-six years later, four crewmen abroad the yacht Mignonette capsized on their way to Sydney from London. Three of the crewmen decided to eat and kill the nineteen-year-old cabin boy, Richard Parker
What is The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
This is the last name of the family in France which had a meteor hit their home
What is Commette
This Chinese man saved a drowning father and then son 30 years later
Who is Xu Weifang
The American Civil War began on this man's farm who then moved more than a hundred miles away to escape the fighting, only to have the war end inside his new house at Appomattox
Who was Wilmer McLean