July 24th Through History

Explanation: The cross planted at Gaspé stood about 9 meters tall. Engraved on it was the inscription 'Vive le Roi de France' (Long live the King of France). The Iroquois Indigenous people present, led by Donnacona, quickly understood the territorial significance of the gesture, which immediately sparked tensions.

Explanation: This speech from the balcony of Montreal City Hall sparked a major diplomatic controversy. The next day, de Gaulle cancelled the rest of his visit and returned to France. Ottawa officially protested, and the incident lastingly shaped Franco-Canadian relations.

Explanation: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had walked on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins remained in orbit aboard the command module Columbia. The USS Hornet recovered all 3 astronauts. Collins, often forgotten, was actually the most isolated man in history: cut off from all communication behind the Moon.

Explanation: Brigham Young succeeded Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism who was murdered in 1844. He led thousands of Mormons to Utah to escape persecution. Salt Lake City is today the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has more than 17 million members worldwide.

Explanation: The nickname 'Camisards' is said to come either from the Occitan word 'camisa' (shirt), as the insurgents wore white shirts to recognize each other at night, or from the word 'camisade', a night attack. The Camisards' War was one of the last major French Protestant revolts after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Explanation: The Treaty of Lausanne replaced the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920, which was never ratified by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. It officially recognized the Republic of Turkey proclaimed in October 1923, organized a massive population exchange between Greece and Turkey (around 1.5 million people), and established the Turkish borders that are still largely in effect today.

Explanation: Alexandre Dumas père co-wrote his works with collaborators, notably Auguste Maquet for Les Trois Mousquetaires and Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. This system of intensive collaboration, called a literary workshop by his critics, allowed him extraordinary productivity: over 100,000 published pages are attributed to him.

Explanation: Later research showed that a local Peruvian farmer, Agustín Lizárraga, had visited the site in 1902 and even inscribed his name there. However, Bingham was the first to bring the site to the attention of the academic world and to organize scientific excavations funded by Yale University and the National Geographic Society.

Explanation: Bolívar freed 6 countries from Spanish rule: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia (which bears his name), and Panama. He dreamed of a great South American federation he called Gran Colombia, a project that failed due to regional rivalries. He died in 1830 in disappointment and internal exile.

Explanation: The Briand-Kellogg Pact, signed in 1928 in Paris, was ultimately ratified by 62 states. Despite its noble intentions, it included no enforcement mechanism and proved totally ineffective against the aggressions of Nazi Germany, Japan, and fascist Italy in the 1930s. Its French initiator, Aristide Briand, had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.