April 16th Throughout History

Explanation: The Battle of Megiddo is not only the first well-documented battle in History, but the site of Megiddo (in present-day Israel) is also associated in Christian tradition with Armageddon, the place of the final battle of the end of times. The records of Thutmose III, engraved on the walls of the Karnak temple, constitute an exceptional historical source.

Explanation: Three days after this accidental discovery, on April 19, 1943, Hofmann conducted an intentional experiment by ingesting 250 micrograms of LSD and rode his bicycle home, experiencing the substance's intense hallucinogenic effects. This day has since been celebrated by some as "Bicycle Day".

Explanation: The sinking of the Goya is one of the worst maritime disasters in history, far deadlier than the Titanic. The German liner was carrying refugees fleeing the Soviet advance and was sunk by submarine S-13, commanded by Captain Alexander Marinesko, the same officer who had sunk the Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945.

Explanation: Charlie Chaplin, born in London, is considered one of the greatest geniuses of silent cinema. Ironically, when sound cinema developed, he long resisted using it, considering pantomime and physical expression to be superior to speech. His film "The Great Dictator" (1940) was his first true sound film.

Explanation: The Treaty of Rapallo, signed during the Genoa Conference, was a major diplomatic surprise: two nations marginalized in the post-war international order, the Weimar Republic and the USSR, were drawing closer together. This treaty also included the mutual cancellation of their war debts and reparations.

Explanation: Jacques Perret, professor of philology at the Sorbonne, proposed the term "ordinateur" as a replacement for the English word "computer". The term comes from the Latin "ordinator", designating one who puts in order. This specifically French term has no direct equivalent in other Romance languages, which all use derivatives of "computer".

Explanation: The Virginia Tech shooting, perpetrated by Seung-Hui Cho, a Korean-American student, remains the deadliest school shooting in American history. It deeply revived the debate on gun control and mental health in the country. The university has since erected a permanent memorial in tribute to the victims.

Explanation: The Battle of Chemin des Dames, launched under the command of General Nivelle, was a military disaster despite promises of a rapid breakthrough. The considerable French losses (approximately 187,000 men in a few weeks) triggered the mutinies of 1917, a major crisis of the French army that General Pétain had to manage by replacing Nivelle.

Explanation: Ernest Solvay revolutionized the chemical industry by inventing the Solvay process in 1861, allowing the industrial production of sodium carbonate (soda ash) on a large scale and at low cost. Becoming immensely wealthy, he funded the famous Solvay Conferences on physics, including the 1927 one which brought together Einstein, Bohr, Curie, and Heisenberg to debate quantum mechanics.

Explanation: The Battle of Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil. The defeat of the Jacobites ended the ambitions of Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") to restore the Stuarts to the British throne. In the following months, repression in the Highlands was terrible: the wearing of tartan and kilt was banned for nearly 40 years.