From Ants to Atrocities: 330 Years of History, Science, and Shocking Global Crime Stats

Did you know?

Ants rest for only about 8 minutes every 12 hours. (No wonder they get so much done. Imagine if we could safely do that.)

On this day in history, December 31

1695 Window tax is imposed in England, causing many to brick up their windows.1897 Brooklyn’s last day as a city before being swallowed up by New York city.

1911 Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her work with radioactivity. Her first was in Physics, which she won in 1904. She dies in 1934, aged 66, of aplastic anaemia, likely brought on from exposure to radiation, the dangers of which weren't fully understood.

1924  Il Duce, Italy's fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, orders the suppression of opposition newspapers.

1935 Charles Darrow patents the board game Monopoly, and goes on to be the first millionaire game designer.

1945 Ratification of the UN Charter, which South African premier Jan Smuts had a strong influence in drawing it up, is completed.

1961 The Marshall Plan expires after spending $12 billion-plus to rebuild war-torn Europe.

1967 Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump the Caesar’s Palace Fountain, in Las Vegas, instead breaking his pelvis, femur, wrist, hip and both ankles (some people live too dangerously).

1977 Donald Woods – confidant of Struggle hero Steve Biko and banned editor of East London’s Daily Dispatch – flees for his life following Biko’s arrest by the feared Security Branch of the police, fording an Orange Free State river to seek sanctuary in Lesotho.

1980 After being struck by an orange thrown from the crowd, West Indian cricketer Sylvester Clarke knocks out a spectator with a brick during 4th Test against Pakistan in Multan.

1999 Russian president Boris Yeltsin resigns. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin takes charge (he’s still there more than a ¼ century later).

2024 Trinidad and Tobago declares a state of emergency over gang violence, with a record 624 murders during the year. Nonetheless, they only rank seventh in the list of nations with the highest murder rates, which for the most part are Caribbean and central American countries. Africa has two entries. The most murderous countries are: #1 Saint Kitts and Nevis (64.16 murders per 100 000 people); 2 Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (51.32); 3 Jamaica (49.44); 4 Ecuador (45.72); 5 South Africa (43.72); 6 Haiti (41.15); 7 Trinidad & Tobago (40.44); 8 Lesotho (38.24); 9 Honduras (38.93) and rounding out the 10 murder capital of the world; Belize (37.79).

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