This Day in History Class

On this day in 1958, at precisely 1:58 pm, the LEGO Group filed the patent application for a new kind of building system that would forever change the way that children played.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1924, the embalmed body of Vladimir Ilych Lenin, communist revolutionary and founder of the Soviet Union, was put on public display in Red Square in the center of Moscow.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1905, a 3,106-carat diamond was discovered at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1979, Robert Williams, an assembly line worker at a Ford casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, was killed on the job by a robotic arm.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1972, a former soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army was discovered hiding in the jungles of Guam, unaware that World War II had ended nearly three decades earlier.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1957, the Wham-O toy company produced its first batch of plastic, flying discs — now known to fans of all ages as Frisbees.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1881, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, also known as Cleopatra’s Needle, was installed in Central Park, just behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1865, a Union Army Colonel turned oil tycoon used a makeshift torpedo to increase the flow of fossil fuels from a well.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1971, Motown legend Marvin Gaye released the powerful hit single “What’s Going On.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this day in 1929, a horned lizard named Old Rip died of pneumonia after allegedly surviving 31 years sealed in the cornerstone of the Eastland, Texas courthouse.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.