December 11, 2025
Last Manned Lunar Landing (1972)
With the Apollo program drawing to a close, the astronauts of Apollo 17 knew that it would be some time before anyone returned to the Moon. Hours after the mission's launch, the astronauts snapped the famous "Blue Marble" photograph of a fully illuminated Earth. Days later, they landed on the Moon. On their three moonwalks, they explored miles of the Taurus-Littrow region, collected rock samples, and set up equipment for remote data collection. Who was the last person to walk on the Moon? Discuss
December 10, 2025
The Brown Dog Affair: Rioting Peaks in London (1907)
In 1903, anti-vivisectionists enrolled as medical students at University College London and published an eyewitness account of a brown dog that had endured months of surgical experimentation while allegedly conscious. A professor named in the story sued for defamation and won. After the trial, anti-vivisectionists put up a statue of the dog as a monument in a park, but mobs of angry medical students rioted and tried to destroy it. In 1910, it was taken down by authorities. When was it replaced?
December 9, 2025
Eradication of Smallpox Is Certified (1979)
One of the deadliest diseases in history by sheer loss of life, smallpox was the target of a concerted, worldwide eradication campaign in the 20th century, and it became the first disease to have been successfully wiped out. Efforts focused on vaccination and quickly responding to and curtailing outbreaks. The last person to die from smallpox caught it at a laboratory, where samples of the now-vanquished disease remain. Who is the last person known to have contracted it in the wild?
