November 3rd Through History

Explanation: SOS was adopted at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference in 1906. It didn't originally stand for 'Save Our Souls', but was chosen for its simplicity in Morse code: three dots, three dashes, three dots, easy to distinguish in an emergency.

Explanation: Laika traveled aboard Sputnik II. She was a stray dog from the streets of Moscow. The USSR only admitted in 2002 that she had died from overheating after a few hours, not after a week as initially announced.

Explanation: Henry VIII had this Act passed to free himself from the authority of Pope Clement VII, who had refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. This schism founded Anglicanism, of which the British monarch remains the supreme head to this day.

Explanation: Linus Pauling received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his research on the nature of the chemical bond. A rare feat: he later received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear testing, making him one of the few people to receive two Nobel Prizes.

Explanation: Leïla Slimani was the first Moroccan woman to win the Goncourt. 'Lullaby' is inspired by a real American news story from 2012. The novel sold over a million copies in France and was translated into around 50 languages.

Explanation: Adolf Dassler founded Adidas in 1949 in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. His brother Rudolf founded the rival brand Puma the same year. The split between the two brothers, former business partners, literally divided the city of Herzogenaurach into two rival camps for decades.

Explanation: Panama separated from Colombia with the quiet but decisive support of the United States, which had its eye on the area to build an interoceanic canal. The Panama Canal was inaugurated ten years later, in 1914, and remained under American control until 1999.

Explanation: Osamu Tezuka is the author of Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom), but also of Kimba the White Lion, Leo the Lion, and the Phoenix saga. He revolutionized manga by introducing cinematic techniques like close-ups and dynamic editing inspired by Walt Disney and Max Fleischer.

Explanation: Amartya Sen received the Nobel for his contributions to welfare economics and his capability approach, developed with Martha Nussbaum. His work on famines demonstrated that they result more from inequalities in distribution than from an actual food shortage.

Explanation: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, often called the 'pacifist clause', prohibits Japan from maintaining offensive armed forces and from resorting to war as a means of resolving international conflicts. Drafted under American occupation, this constitution is also nicknamed the 'MacArthur Constitution'.