And I bet you'd have to use google to find out the number of US Presidents that have been assasinated and their names, what led to the world wars, and the names of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan and the aircraft that dropped them.
Again, the amount of historical knowledge that certain people possess is pathetically small.
Only know some of the Presidents assassinated, but also don't care much. Politicians deserve what they get in that regard.
Second question: Europe being Europe. LOL. (Okay I know the real reasons the history books give, but think that answer covers it better and is funnier than caring about an Archduke... see answer to number one.)
Fat Man and Little Boy. And of course "The Gadget" pre-dated both.
If you're into nuclear weapons history, recently "Command and Control" popped up as a freebie on Netflix. Not too many people know the USAF launched a 9 megaton bomb out of a silo near Little Rock in the 80s... well, launched by an explosion... from a dropped socket from a socket wrench (a big one)... and didn't know where it went for a while. They found it in the ditch next to the entrance road.
Various other interesting facts in that documentary. Sobering.
The accident rate hidden from even the engineers tasked with safety procedures, wasn't too much of a surprise, though.
Not after a former co-worker described an evening in his former life where he had to tell an airman, "Please get off of the nuclear weapon and stop trying to ride it like a bull. This isn't Dr. Strangelove."
It's a PBS documentary so there's probably other ways to watch it.
May have to pick up Schlosser's book to read it, now that I've seen this.
Yay Broken Arrows...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/command-and-control/
Somehow I missed both the book and the video coming out.
If you haven't been to the Titan II historical site, it looks worth a visit. I haven't been to Titan II, but have been to the Minuteman site. Still need to do the Trinity open house, some year, too.
If I ever get time, I'd like to get photos at the Rulison and Rio Blanco signage/placards. I know Rio Blanco is accessible, not quite sure about Rulison's big "Active Nuclear Blast Test Site" signage. Always entertaining to have a photo at a sign commemorating us bombing ourselves... and those two are an easy day trip from here. Might be able to do it with the airplane to Rifle, and a rental car even. Just hasn't ever bubbled up to the top of the "I'm bored let's make a road trip" list yet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare