December 23, 2025
Seven Japanese Military Leaders Executed for War Crimes (1948)
In the aftermath World War II, thousands of people in Europe and Asia were tried for war crimes. In Tokyo, US General Douglas MacArthur presided over the years-long trial of 28 high-ranking Japanese military and political leaders, all of whom were found guilty. Seven of them—including Hideki Tojo, the former prime minister of Japan—were sentenced to death. A month later, they were executed by hanging. At the execution, MacArthur defied the wishes of US President Harry S. Truman in what way? Discuss
December 22, 2025
The Lincoln Tunnel Opens to Traffic (1937)
About 120,000 vehicles pass under the Hudson River by way of the 1.5-mile (2.4-km) Lincoln Tunnel every day. A vital link between New York's Manhattan borough and Weehawken, New Jersey, the tunnel was constructed under the supervision of civil engineer and underwater tunnel pioneer Ole Singstad. The first two-lane tube opened in 1937, with two others opening in 1945 and 1957. To accommodate rush-hour traffic patterns, lanes can be reversed. How much was the original fare when the tunnel opened?
December 21, 2025
Marie and Pierre Curie Discover Radium (1898)
Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie were working with pitchblende, a heavy mineral known to contain the radioactive element uranium, when they noticed something unusual. Somehow, the pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium it contained. The culprit was radium, a previously unknown element present in pitchblende only in trace amounts—yet more than a million times more radioactive than uranium. What common household products contained radium until it was discovered to be dangerous?
