The KT boundary when the dinosaurs died was caused by a meteor which hit off the Yucatan peninsula in the Caribbean about 64.5 million years ago. When this happened a large amount of sulfuric acid was thrown into the atmosphere. This acid reflected the sunlight trying to get to the earth. As a result the temperature of the earth went from about 20 degrees C to -5 degrees C in about a week. We also know that this occurred in June because of leaf fossils which show the effect of the quick freeze.

(The Great Courses – The Physics of History)

Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung” which is better known as the Ring cycle is a set of four music drama’s (Wagner’s description). It took him 21 years to finish it after he wrote the first draft of the poem. He also took a period 12 years off between writing the 2nd and 3rd acts of the the third of the music dramas. At the end of the cycle there are only two major characters who don’t die. A German judge also once wrote that there was only one character that did not commit a crime.

(The Great Courses – The Music of Richard Wagner)

During the late 1930’s Stalin began a purge that included communist leaders. At the end of the 1930’s only two members of the 1924 Soviet Politburo were still alive. One was Trotsky who was murdered in Mexico and 1940 and that left only one person left…Stalin.

(The Great Courses – The History of Russia)

North and South America were joined at Panama around 3-4 million years ago. When this happened the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean were no longer able to mix freely. The easterly winds in the north and south which would carry the water vapor from the Pacific to the Atlantic are stopped by the Rockies and Andes while the westerly winds from the Caribbean are still able to carry water vapor from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This causes the Atlantic Ocean to be more salty than the Pacific Ocean by about 1 part per 1000. While this doesn’t sound like a lot it is enough to create the great ocean current carrying water from the Caribbean north to the north Atlantic then south and around Africa to the Indian Ocean and then into the Pacific and then in a similar route back through the Indian and back into the Atlantic Ocean.

(The Great Courses – The Physics of History)

During WWI supplies in Russia were so sparse that new soldiers were sent to the front against Germany without guns. They were told that there plenty of dead soldiers and that is were they should get their guns.

(The Great Courses – The History of Russia)

Because of the small number of Carbon-14 atoms the use of Carbon-14 dating cannot be used after about 100 half lives have occurred which is about 60,000 years

(The Great Courses – The Physics of History)

In the times of ancient Greece battles were fought by two Hoplite armies facing each other and trying to break the opposing line. When the line of one army broke the cavalry would be sent through the break. Alexander the Great was the first to use the cavalry to break the line and then send his army through the break.

(The Great Courses – Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age)