Scott Allsop's Blog, page 86

23rd December 1750: Ben Franklin accidentally shocks himself while trying to electrocute a turkey

Benjamin Franklin, the American polymath, accidentally electrocuted himself while attempting to kill a ...

22nd December 1894: Alfred Dreyfus found guilty of treason in France

The origin for the scandal lay in the discovery of a ripped-up letter in a waste basket at the German Embassy in ...

21st December 1913: First modern crossword puzzle printed in the New York World newspaper, created by Arthur Wynne

Wynne’s first ‘word-cross puzzle’ was shaped as a symmetrical diamond with a hollow centre, and was developed by Wynne for the 21 December issue of the New York World’s ‘Fun’ ...

20th December 1924: Adolf Hitler released from Landsberg Prison

In November 1923 Hitler was imprisoned after he led a failed coup against the Weimar Government by trying to seize power in the Bavarian city of ...

19th December 1783: William Pitt the Younger becomes Britain’s youngest ever Prime Minister

William Pitt the Younger became the youngest ever Prime Minister of Great Britain at the age of ...

18th December 1892: Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker receives its première performance at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg

Composed in the Romantic style, the score received good reviews although responses to the ballet itself were mostly negative. The fortunes of the ballet only turned around with a new staging in New York in ...

17th December 497 BCE: The first Saturnalia festival celebrated in ancient Rome

The Saturnalia festival was dedicated to Roman god, ...

16th December 1914: German Imperial Navy attacks the British seaside towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby

Over a thousand shells were fired by the German ships, resulting in 137 deaths and a further 592 people being injured in the British towns. Most of the casualties were ...

15th December 1851: The Forest Creek Monster Meeting of Australian gold miners protests taxes

Over 14,000 Australian gold miners gathered at Forest Creek in Victoria for a protest known as the Monster ...

14th December 1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole

Amundsen’s team arrived five weeks ahead of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova ...