March 6 Through History

Explanation: Mendeleev had actually sent his table to around sixty chemists around the world before this official presentation. He also left blank spaces for then-unknown elements, several of which were later discovered, confirming the validity of his system.

Explanation: The Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of resistance for Texans. The rallying cry "Remember the Alamo!" was later used at the Battle of San Jacinto, where the Texans avenged their defeat by capturing General Santa Anna and winning Texas independence.

Explanation: Marguerite Yourcenar, author of the celebrated Memoirs of Hadrian among other works, was elected to seat n°3. She had been proposed by Jean d'Ormesson. Her entry under the Coupole broke a male exclusivity that had lasted more than three centuries, since the Academy's founding by Richelieu in 1635.

Explanation: The meeting between Joan of Arc and Charles VII took place in Chinon, in what is now Indre-et-Loire. According to legend, Joan recognized the king among his courtiers even though he was trying to hide, which helped convince Charles of the authenticity of her divine mission.

Explanation: Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, was declared independent under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, who became its first Prime Minister and then President. The country took the name Ghana in reference to the ancient medieval empire of the same name, a symbol of pre-colonial African pride.

Explanation: The premiere of La Traviata was a resounding failure, partly due to singers considered ill-suited to their roles. Verdi himself wrote to a friend: "La Traviata last night, fiasco. Is it my fault or the singers'?" Yet the opera triumphed when it was revived the following year.

Explanation: Château-Gaillard was built by Richard the Lionheart in 1196-1198, in just two years, to defend Normandy against the ambitions of Philippe Auguste. Richard reportedly declared he would defend it even if its walls were made of butter. Its fall marked the beginning of England's loss of Normandy.

Explanation: The Herald of Free Enterprise, owned by the Townsend Thoresen company, sank in less than 90 seconds after the bow door of the ship was left open when it departed the port. This disaster led to a complete overhaul of maritime safety regulations for ferries in Europe.

Explanation: While Mendeleev is universally recognized for his periodic table, the German chemist Lothar Meyer had developed a similar classification almost simultaneously. However, Mendeleev had the decisive insight to leave blank spaces for elements not yet discovered and to predict their properties with remarkable accuracy.

Explanation: Clarence Birdseye was the pioneer of commercial frozen foods. The idea came to him during a stay in Labrador, where he observed that the Inuit preserved their food by freezing it quickly at very low temperatures. He perfected this process and founded the General Seafoods Company, which gave birth to the Birds Eye brand.