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In the 1840s, a group of young Irish idealists began to promote Irish cultural nationalism. Known as Young Irelanders, they eventually sought revolution and, in 1848, organized a disastrous rebellion in Tipperary led by William Smith O'Brien and Thomas Meagher. Sometimes called the Famine Rebellion of 1848—since it took place during the Great Irish Famine—the Young Irelander Rebellion led to the ultimate failure of the movement. What events likely inspired the Young Irelanders to revolt? Discuss

On a foggy Saturday morning in July 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber accidentally crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors. One of the plane's engines shot through the building and out the other side, and the other plummeted down an elevator shaft. Though 14 people died in the incident, the building was largely open for business on the following Monday. What Guinness World Record was set by elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver during the accident?

Fought between Scottish highland clans supporting James II and VII and the government troops of William of Orange, the Battle of Killiecrankie occurred in Scotland during the first Jacobite uprising in 1689. Outnumbered, barefoot, and armed mostly with claymores—large, double-edged broadswords—the highlanders, led by John Graham of Claverhouse, used their position on the steep Pass of Killiecrankie to force a retreat. Despite the victory, Claverhouse was killed. What became of the revolt?

Loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival—the medieval epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail—Parsifal is a three-act opera by German composer Richard Wagner. The opera was first conceived in 1857 but not completed until 25 years later. It premiered in 1882 at the second Bayreuth Festival, where it was performed exclusively until 1903. What tradition has arisen among the audience at performances of Parsifal at Bayreuth?

Cerro Maravilla, one of the highest peaks in Puerto Rico, is perhaps best known for being the site of a police ambush in 1978 in which two pro-independence activists were killed. Though initial inquiries by local authorities, the US Justice Department, and the FBI concluded that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the police, subsequent investigations resulted in four second-degree murder convictions. How many Puerto Rican Secretaries of Justice resigned following the incident?

The Kitchen Debate was an impromptu debate—conducted through interpreters—between US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. Centering on a discussion of the merits of capitalism versus communism, it took place in the kitchen of a model suburban American house designed to showcase American household appliances, which Nixon touted as examples of American innovation. How did the debate end?

In 1967, racial tensions spurred by high unemployment rates and poor housing conditions in Detroit exploded when police officers raided a speakeasy on the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount. The confrontation with the patrons developed into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in modern US history, lasting five days and resulting in 43 deaths, 467 injuries, more than 7,200 arrests, and the destruction of more than 2,000 buildings. How was the rioting finally brought under control?

In 1931, American aviator Wiley Post flew around the world with navigator Harold Gatty in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes, breaking the previous record of 21 days. They published an account of their trip in Around the World in Eight Days. Two years later, Post became the first person to fly around the world alone, a feat he completed in just 7 days and 19 hours. Post died in 1935 when his plane crashed in Alaska with what famous entertainer on board?

After her husband's assassination in 1959, Bandaranaike became the first woman in the world to serve as a nation's prime minister. She led two coalition governments, from 1960–65 and from 1970–77, and promoted a new constitution that proclaimed a republic and changed the country's name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. She was later stripped of her civil rights because of abuses as prime minister but reentered politics in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, she was again appointed prime minister by whom?

In the spring of 1864 during the American Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman began preparing his troops for their first major attack on the defenses of Atlanta, Georgia. Just days after taking command of a Confederate army in that area, General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attacked Sherman's troops as they crossed the nearby Peachtree Creek. Considered a grave error by most historians, the attack is estimated to have cost Hood nearly 5,000 men, compared to how many from Sherman's army?

After King Henry VIII divorced her mother, Catherine of Aragon, and married Anne Boleyn, Mary was declared illegitimate and lost her place in the line of succession. In 1553, her granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey, was deposed following a nine-day reign, and Mary—restored to the line of succession in 1544—became queen. She restored Roman Catholicism to England, but the resulting persecution of Protestants and the execution of some 300 heretics earned her the hatred of her subjects and what nickname?

The deadliest shooting spree in US history at the time, the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre took place at a McDonald's restaurant in San Diego, California, and resulted in 21 deaths and 19 injuries. It was carried out by James Oliver Huberty, who had moved to the area just six months earlier and recently lost his job. The 77-minute massacre ended when Huberty was fatally shot by a sniper. Later that year, McDonald's razed the building where the killings had occurred. What was built in its place?

The RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship that first became famous for rescuing more than 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912. Six years later, during WWI, the Carpathia was travelling in a convoy when it was torpedoed off the east coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-55. Many of the passengers and crew members were rescued by the HMS Snowdrop the following day. When was the steamship's wreckage discovered?

Called the Trinity test, the first test of a nuclear weapon was conducted by the US in New Mexico on what is now White Sands Missile Range. The detonation of the implosion-design plutonium bomb—the same type used on Nagasaki, Japan, a few weeks later—was equivalent to the explosion of approximately 20 kilotons of TNT, and is usually considered the beginning of the Atomic Age. It is said that the scientists who observed the detonation set up a betting pool on what the result would be. Who won?

Ball, an English priest and social reformer, gained fame as a roving preacher advocating ecclesiastical poverty and social equality, which brought him into conflict with the archbishop of Canterbury. He was jailed three times and excommunicated in 1376. Four years later, he became one of the instigators of the Peasant's Revolt of 1381—the first great popular rebellion in English history—and was later captured and hanged, drawn, and quartered. Ball is perhaps best known for what famous couplet?

English illustrator Edward Whymper developed an interest in mountaineering after being sent to sketch the mountain scenery of Switzerland in 1860. In 1865, after several failed attempts, he and his expedition party became the first to climb the Matterhorn—one of the last Alpine mountains to be ascended. Tragically, during the descent, four of his companions were killed in a fall. Whymper describes his experiences in Scrambles Amongst the Alps. What did he write about the accident?

The iconic Hollywood sign overlooking the community and spelling out its name in 50-foot (15-meter) high white letters originally said "Hollywoodland" and was erected as an advertisement for a real estate firm promoting a new housing development with that name. Though not intended to be permanent, the sign quickly became an internationally recognized landmark, and the last four letters were removed in 1949. What are some of the ways that pranksters have altered the sign over the years?

In the presidential election of 1800, a tie between Thomas Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, left the choice of chief executive to the House of Representatives. Hamilton's influence made Jefferson President and Burr Vice President. In 1804, Hamilton again thwarted Burr in his bid for governorship of New York, and Burr challenged him to a duel. The two men met on July 11, and Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. Why do some believe Hamilton missed Burr on purpose?

This 1990 confrontation between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec, was the first of several violent conflicts between the First Nations and the Canadian government. It began when developers tried to turn a plot of land into a golf course. Because that land contained a burial ground and sacred pine grove, members of the Mohawk community blockaded the area. Canadian troops were sent in, and a 78-day standoff ensued, ending with the Mohawks' surrender. What happened to the golf course?

Just a month after Nazi forces overran Poland and began distributing anti-Semitic propaganda there, the non-Jewish residents of the Polish town of Jedwabne took it upon themselves to round up and massacre Jews living in the area, burning hundreds alive. The fact that the Jedwabne Pogrom was not a German death squad operation but was actually "committed directly by Poles" was only recently established by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. What details of the atrocity are still debated?