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21 events

January 15 1919 Disasters & Accidents A Wave of Molasses: Boston's Strangest Disaster On 15 January 1919, a fifty-foot steel tank in Boston's North End burst, sending millions of gallons of molasses through the streets in a wave that killed 21 people — and produced a landmark corporate-negligence case. February 11 1990 Society & Movements The Long Walk Ends: Nelson Mandela Is Released On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison after 27 years of imprisonment, a moment broadcast worldwide that opened the negotiated end of apartheid in South Africa. February 28 1953 Science & Technology The Secret of Life: Cracking the Structure of DNA On 28 February 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick worked out the double-helix structure of DNA at Cambridge, revealing how living things copy and pass on their genetic information. March 10 1876 Science & Technology "Mr. Watson — Come Here": The First Telephone Call On 10 March 1876, in a Boston boarding-house laboratory, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first intelligible sentence by telephone to his assistant Thomas Watson — three days after his patent was issued. April 15 1912 Disasters & Accidents Unsinkable: The Loss of RMS Titanic In the early hours of 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg, taking more than 1,500 lives on her maiden voyage. April 26 1986 Disasters & Accidents Reactor Four: The Chernobyl Disaster In the early hours of 26 April 1986, a botched safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine blew apart Reactor No. 4, spreading radioactive fallout across Europe and reshaping the world's view of nuclear power. May 6 1954 Sport 3:59.4 — Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile On 6 May 1954, on a windy evening at Oxford's Iffley Road track, medical student Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds — the first human being to break four minutes, and the fall of sport's most famous barrier. May 29 1953 Exploration & Discovery The Roof of the World: Hillary and Tenzing Summit Everest On 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood on the summit of Mount Everest — the first climbers ever known to reach the highest point on Earth, after nine failed British expeditions over three decades. June 15 1215 Politics & Power Runnymede: King John Seals Magna Carta On 15 June 1215, in a meadow beside the Thames, King John of England accepted the barons' Great Charter — a failed peace treaty that became, through reissue and reinvention, the founding text of the rule of law. June 18 1815 War & Conflict Waterloo: The Last Battle of Napoleon On 18 June 1815, an Anglo-allied army under Wellington and a Prussian army under Blücher defeated Napoleon near Waterloo, ending his rule and a generation of European war. July 20 1969 Exploration & Discovery One Small Step: Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon On 20 July 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility, and Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on another world. July 20 1976 Exploration & Discovery First Light on Mars: Viking 1 Lands Exactly seven years after Apollo 11, NASA's Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars and operate, returning the first clear pictures from the Martian surface. August 6 1991 Science & Technology The Web Goes Public: Tim Berners-Lee Posts the First Website On 6 August 1991, a researcher at CERN named Tim Berners-Lee posted a short message announcing the World Wide Web and put the first website online — inviting anyone, anywhere, to join a project that would remake the world. August 28 1963 Society & Movements I Have a Dream: The March on Washington On 28 August 1963, some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech. September 5 1977 Exploration & Discovery The Farthest Machine: Voyager 1 Leaves Earth On 5 September 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 toward Jupiter and Saturn. Nearly half a century later it is the most distant human-made object in existence — still calling home from interstellar space, carrying a golden record of Earth. October 1 1908 Society & Movements A Car for the Multitude: The Ford Model T Goes on Sale On 1 October 1908, the first production Ford Model T was offered for sale — the affordable, durable car that would put America on wheels and remake the modern factory. October 30 1938 Culture & the Arts Martians on the Radio: The War of the Worlds Broadcast On 30 October 1938, Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre dramatized The War of the Worlds as a series of fake news bulletins. The 'mass panic' it supposedly caused was largely a newspaper myth — but the broadcast changed media history. November 9 1989 Politics & Power The Night the Berlin Wall Fell On 9 November 1989, a garbled press announcement sent thousands of East Berliners to the Wall's checkpoints; by midnight the barrier that had divided the city for 28 years was open. November 24 1859 Science & Technology Endless Forms Most Beautiful: On the Origin of Species Is Published On 24 November 1859, John Murray of London published Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The entire first printing was taken up by the book trade on publication day — and biology has been reorganized around it ever since. December 1 1955 Society & Movements Section for the Rest: Rosa Parks Refuses to Move On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott that launched the modern American civil rights movement. December 17 1903 Science & Technology Twelve Seconds at Kitty Hawk: The First Powered Flight On 17 December 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers achieved the first sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft.