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Saturday, May 26
Fritz Haber became the "father of chemical warfare" after he developed chlorine gas for the German army during World War I. It was considered a major step forward in military brutality. He also worked on an insecticide called Zyklon B. And …Read more.
Friday, May 25
Many video games have cheat codes. The most famous is the Konami Code, which developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto created because he thought Gradius was impossible to play otherwise. There are variations, but it typically goes like this: up, up, down, down, …Read more.
Thursday, May 24
During WWI, British munitions minister David Lloyd George met Chaim Weizmann in Manchester. Weizmann was working on synthetic rubber, and a byproduct of that process was acetone. The British military needed acetone because its supply from Europe was …Read more.
Wednesday, May 23
You'd think young men have been giving their fiancÇes diamond rings for centuries. Perhaps, but it only became an Ironclad social rule after De Beers hired the ad agency NW Ayer & Son in 1939. They developed the slogan
"A Diamond is …Read more.
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Wednesday, May 27Alchemy Achieved: In 1980, Glenn Seaborg succeeded where centuries of alchemists had failed, when he converted trillionths of a gram of element 82 to element 79. That means he turned lead to gold. Mind you, it took a ridiculous amount of energy. Seaborg is also notable as the only person to have an element officially named for him while he was still alive. (Some elements discovered during the Manhattan Project were not officially named until years later.) All Things Davos: Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" takes place at a sanatorium in Davos, but you know it best for the World Economic Forum that takes place there.
In the Russian novel "Crime and Punishment," the punishment is a trip to Siberia. But what is the crime? A) Arson B) Murder C) Sedition D) Treason Previous answer: Two actors were Oscar-nominated for playing Cyrano. TRIVIA FANS: Send the trivia questions you've always wanted answered, or original TriviaBits ideas of your own, with your full name and hometown, to Paul Paquet at paul@triviahalloffame.com or visit him online at www.triviahalloffame.com.
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