1857 St Martin’s, Literature: Charles Dickens read ‘A Christmas Carol’ in his first public reading.
1906 DC, Politics: Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act partly in response to Upton Sinclair’s exposés of the grotesque practices in the food business in the novel ‘The Jungle’ and in his journalism.
1908 Tunguska (Russia), Science: A giant fireball caused by the explosion of a large meteoroid flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 2000 square kilometres in Yeniseysk, the largest extraterrestrial impact ever. It struck an area with virtually no human inhabitants. Certainly none remained alive afterward to answer inane questions from journalists. Hillary did it, according to Pox News.
1997 London, Literature: J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was released. It has since sold 120 million copies and counting.
2016 Älmhult (Sweden), Commerce: The Ikea Museum opened on the site of the very first of its stores. The last piece remains missing. Entrants must traverse all aisles to leave. There are no short cuts. Abandon hope all ye who shop there.
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