Scott Allsop's Blog, page 20

10th January 1927: Fritz Lang’s pioneering science fiction film Metropolis premieres in Berlin

Metropolis later gained recognition as a masterpiece of early cinema with Its iconic imagery influencing countless films and works of science ...

9th January 1916: Gallipoli campaign ends with an Ottoman victory following the final withdrawal of Allied forces

Troops were first withdrawn from the Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove areas in December 1915. The final phase, involving the evacuation of Cape Helles, was completed on 9 January 1916 with the departure of the Newfoundland Regiment and remnants of The Plymouth Battalion, Royal Marine Light ...

8th January 1790: George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address

American President George Washington delivered the very first State of the Union address to ...

5th January 1953: Samuel Beckett’s play En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot) premieres at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris

Beckett originally wrote the play in French, despite being fluent in English, as he believed the language allowed for greater simplicity and precision. It has since became one of the most studied and performed plays of the 20th ...

28th December 1918: Constance Markievicz becomes the first woman to be elected to the Parliament of the UK

Markievicz stood as a Sinn Féin candidate and secured over 63% of the vote in the constituency of Dublin St Patrick’s, but refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown and consequently did not take her seat in the House of ...

27th December 1922: Hōshō, the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier, commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy

While other nations had converted ships into carriers the Japanese ship, named Hōshō, was the first to be designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier from the ...

22nd December 1971: Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) officially established in Paris, France

One of the organization’s first missions was in Nicaragua following the devastating 1972 earthquake. Since then, MSF has expanded its operations worldwide, responding to emergencies such as the Rwandan Genocide, the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, and refugee ...

21st December 1620: The first Mayflower Pilgrims land at Plymouth

The first of the Mayflower Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they established the Plymouth ...

20th December 1951: EBR-I in Idaho becomes the first nuclear reactor to generate usable electricity

Having begun power operation at the end of August 1951, on December 20 Atomic Energy Program scientists at the EBR-I successfully used the reactor to produce enough electricity to power four 200 watt light ...

19th December 1487: Largest recorded human sacrifices in Mesoamerican history at the Sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan

Historical accounts, particularly from post-conquest sources, describe the central importance of a mass sacrifice involving around 4,000 prisoners of war in which the victims’ abdomens were cut open and their hearts ...