In Medieval tournaments, a mass competition where individual knights or teams of knights would try to best their opponents in order to claim a ransom.
Mêlée
Fact of the Day
Thirteenth-century chancellor of Oxford, Thomas de Cantilupe, banned students from carrying arms. At one point he had 20 confiscated bows and swords.
Quote of the Day
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.
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~ Henry Ford
On This Day
1846 Scottish surgeon Robert Liston was the first European to use anaesthesia during an amputation. He could amputate a leg in two and a half minutes.
1898 Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1937 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', the world's first full-length animated film, premiered in the USA
1946 A tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake killed at least 1,362 and left thousands homeless in Japan.
1967 Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died in Cape Town, South Africa, 18 days after his operation.
1988 Pan Am Flight 103 exploded as it was flying over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 243 passengers and 16 crew, and 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed