Matthew A. Henson (1866-1955), who had worked with Peary since an 1887 expedition in Nicaragua.
Henson and Peary were the only two of a team of six explorers to reach what Peary claimed was the North Pole on April 7, 1909.
The two men who laid the Mason-Dixon line gave it its name. Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon laid the line sometime between 1763 and 1767 at 39°43’26” north latitude. Originally it was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Later it marked the line between slave states and free states.
The last viceroy of India was not Lord Mountbatten. Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979) was India’s last British viceroy, or governor general, from August 1947 to June 1948. Chakravarti Raj agopalachari (1879-1972) then served as governor-general of India’s interim government from June 1948 to January 1950, when the position was abolished.
The one-time foreign minister and war minister of the Soviet Union Leon Trotsky was expelled from Russia by Joseph Stalin in 1929. He made his way to Mexico, where he was murdered, probably at Stalin’s command, in 1940.
King Edward VIII of England gave up his throne for the love of Wallis Warfield Simpson on December 10, 1936. His younger brother George VI, who reigned until 1952, took the throne in his place when Elizabeth II became queen.
Haile Selassie (1891-1975), emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, was known as the Conquering Lion. His tenacity against his enemies earned him his nickname, a variation of one of his official titles, the Lion of Judah.
Genghis Khan was born circa 1162 and died in 1227. His real name was Temiijin; the title Genghis Khan meant “universal ruler.” He ruled Mongolia, conquered China, devastated the Muslim empire of Khwarizm (now part of Soviet Uzbekistan), and raided Persia and Russia.