| Scientific American | | pop-science magazine began publication (1845) | | Kellogg-Briand Pact Signed | | The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement between the US and France to renounce war and seek settlement of disputes by peaceful means. It took its name from US Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand. Numerous other nations subsequently signed the pact, but it made no provision for measures against aggressors and proved ineffective in the 1930s. What role did it play in the Nuremberg Trials? | | Pope John Paul I Elevated to Papacy | | Born Albino Luciani, Pope John Paul I was the first pope to choose a double name, a move that honored his two immediate predecessors, Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. Refusing to have the millennium-old traditional papal coronation, he instead opted for a simplified ceremony. His 33-day papacy was one of the shortest reigns in papal history, resulting in the ''Year of Three Popes.'' What were several conspiracy theories that arose at the time of Pope John Paul I's death? | | 42nd Street Opens on Broadway | | 42nd Street, a hugely successful stage musical, tells the story of an up-and-coming chorus girl named Peggy Sawyer, who hails from Allentown, Pennsylvania, and arrives in New York City to pursue a Broadway career. The show premiered in 1980 at NYC's Winter Garden Theatre and won the Tony Awards for Choreography and Best Musical. It was revived in 2001 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. In the original Broadway production, who played the role of musical director Julian Marsh? | | Krakatau explodes | | The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia, on this day in 1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.
Krakatau exhibited its first stirrings in more than 200 years on May 20, 1883. A German warship passing by reported a seven-mile high cloud of ash and dust over Krakatau. For the next two months, similar explosions would be witnessed by commercial liners and natives on nearby Java and Sumatra. With little to no idea of the impending catastrophe, the local inhabitants greeted the volcanic activity with festive excitement.
On August 26 and August 27, excitement turned to horror as Krakatau literally blew itself apart, setting off a chain of natural disasters that would be felt around the world for years to come. An enormous blast on the afternoon of August 26 destroyed the northern two-thirds of the island; as it plunged into the Sunda Strait, between the Java Sea and Indian Ocean, the gushing mountain generated a series of pyroclastic flows (fast-moving fluid bodies of molten gas, ash and rock) and monstrous tsunamis that swept over nearby coastlines. Four more eruptions beginning at 5:30 a.m. the following day proved cataclysmic. The explosions could be heard as far as 3,000 miles away, and ash was propelled to a height of 50 miles. Fine dust from the explosion drifted around the earth, causing spectacular sunsets and forming an atmospheric veil that lowered temperatures worldwide by several degrees.
Of the estimated 36,000 deaths resulting from the eruption, at least 31,000 were caused by the tsunamis created when much of the island fell into the water. The greatest of these waves measured 120 feet high, and washed over nearby islands, stripping away vegetation and carrying people out to sea. Another 4,500 people were scorched to death from the pyroclastic flows that rolled over the sea, stretching as far as 40 miles, according to some sources.
In addition to Krakatau, which is still active, Indonesia has another 130 active volcanoes, the most of any country in the world. |
|  | |
