It took the New York World’s Fair and imminent war in Europe to bring British royalty across the Atlantic. On June 7, 1939, King George VI and the future Queen Elizabeth II crossed the border from Canada to Niagara Falls, then traveled to Washington, D.C., for lunch with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Later they went…
Pius IX, who led the Catholic Church for nearly 32 years, from 1846 to 1878, was the longest-reigning pope. It was during his reign that the First Vatican Council, in 1870, promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility. That doctrine states that the pope cannot err on matters of faith or morals when speaking ex cathedra,…
Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883) was 3 feet, 4 inches tall when he died. The star of P. T. Barnum’s circus was better known as General Tom Thumb.
Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) was an encyclopedist of the Roman Empire whose reputation as an expert on scientific matters endured until the Middle Ages. Pliny was also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus. His adopted son, Pliny the Younger (c. A.D. 61–c. A.D. 113), was a lawyer and administrator known mainly for the large collection…
Michel de Notredame, aka Nostradamus (1503-1566), seems to have predicted his own death. On July 1, 1566, his assistant rose to leave him for the evening, saying, “Tomorrow, master,” to which Nostradamus said, “Tomorrow at sunrise, I shall no longer be here.” The next morning he was found dead from an attack of dropsy.
Acute appendicitis overcame the former Erich Weiss known as Harry Houdini on October 31, 1926, Halloween. He was 52 years old.