Scott Allsop's Blog, page 22

18th November 1883: The Day of Two Noons sees four standard time zones applied across the continental United States

Railroad companies found it difficult to coordinate train schedules and prevent accidents as trains crossed different regions with varied local times, so adopted a solution to divide the country into four distinct time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and ...

17th November 1894: H. H. Holmes, one of America’s earliest serial killers, apprehended in Boston

During Holmes’ time in Chicago, he owned a multi-story building that later became known as the “Murder Castle” thanks to sensationalist newspaper reports from the ...

16th November 1793: Mass drownings begin in Nantes as part of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution

The drownings at Nantes began when dozens of refractory priests were loaded onto adapted barges, which were taken to the middle of the Loire River and deliberately sunk, or the prisoners thrown ...

13th November 1956: Supreme Court upholds Browder v Gayle to desegregate buses in Alabama

The United States Supreme Court upheld the District Court’s ruling in Browder v. Gayle that segregation on public buses and transportation in Alabama was ...

12th November 1933: German referendum on withdrawing from the League of Nations

Voters were asked whether they approved of the Nazi government’s withdrawal from the League of Nations. Official results indicated overwhelming support, with approximately 95% of voters casting ballots in favour of the ...

9th November 1799: Coup of 18 Brumaire sees Napoleon Bonaparte begin his rise to power

After the coup, the Law of Brumaire established a new government under the direction of three consuls although Napoleon held the real power as First ...

8th November 1620: Battle of White Mountain fought near Prague in the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War

While the Battle of White Mountain allowed Ferdinand II to reassert Habsburg control over the region, initiating a harsh re-Catholicization process and stripping the Bohemian nobility of their lands and privileges, the war grew into a pan-European conflict that caused up to 8 million military and civilian ...

7th November 1917: Bolshevik Red Guards take control of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg

The 'storming of the Winter Palace' presents the takeover of the Winter Palace as a huge battle. However, this popular image is a ...

5th November 1605: Gunpowder Plot foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords in London

However, the plot was revealed in an anonymous letter and Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of ...

3rd November 1918: The Kiel Mutiny begins, marking the start of the German Revolution

The mutiny quickly spread throughout the Kiel naval base, and within days tens of thousands of sailors and workers had joined the ...