A Note From Bob
Three ships before sunrise
Monday morning, and an anniversary made for this newsletter. On this day in 1492, in the half-light before dawn, three small ships slipped down the river from Palos de la Frontera and out into the open Atlantic, roughly ninety men aboard. Ten weeks later they sighted land, and the two halves of the world were never strangers again. Today's featured quiz is on the man who led them: Christopher Columbus, fifteen questions. And when you finish, a thirty-question deep dive into the entire Age of Discovery is waiting further down. Pour the coffee.
Trivia Question of the Day
In 1896, Britain fought the shortest war in recorded history against the island sultanate of Zanzibar. From the first shell to the ceasefire, roughly how long did it last?
The answer is at the bottom of this email.
Today's Featured Quiz
Christopher Columbus
He made four voyages between 1492 and 1504, and he went to his grave insisting he had found the outskirts of Asia. He was wrong about that, and about plenty else, yet his crossings stitched the world together for good. The three ships, the sovereigns who paid for them, the Taino people who met him on the beach at Guanahani: fifteen questions on the explorer whose name became shorthand for exploration itself. How well do you really know him?
The Answer
About 38 minutes
On the morning of August 27, 1896, Sultan Khalid bin Barghash barricaded himself in the palace at Zanzibar after seizing the throne against British wishes. A Royal Navy ultimatum expired at 9:00 a.m., the bombardment opened at 9:02, and the palace flag was down well before ten. Estimates run from 38 to 45 minutes, either way the shortest war ever recorded. Khalid fled to the German consulate and into a long exile. Today's second quiz is just below.
On This Day
On this day in 1958, the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus reached the North Pole, the first vessel ever to do it, gliding beneath the polar ice with 116 men aboard. Her message when she could finally transmit: "Nautilus 90 North." More than four centuries separate her from the caravels, but the impulse was the same one that pushed sailors past the edge of every map. That era is today's second quiz: the explorers, the ships, and the empires of the Age of Discovery. 30 questions.
Stay
Curious.
Bob
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