1. Lusitania
   Titanic
2. Last U-boat
   HMS Sheffield

The Titanic actually sank a few days before this headline, but news moved slower then.

1. The end of World War I in Europe
   The end of World War II in Europe
2. The end of the Spanish-American War
   the end of World War II everywhere

VE Day stands for Victory in Europe, as opposed to victory everywhere. VJ day (Victory over Japan) was in August.

1. first man on the moon
   frst man in space
2. first child of the Queen learns to walk
   first child of JFK learns to walk

This was how the Evening Standard introduced Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for the first time.

1. death of the Queen
   death of the Queen Mother
2. death of Princess Diana
   death of Mother Teresa

The Queen Mother was the mother of the current Queen, Elizabeth II. She was a national hero for her work and philanthropy during her life and also for her efforts in World War II, where she famously refused to leave London during the Blitz.

1. Southeast Asian tsunami
   floods in Houston
2. Japanese tsunami
   floods in Tewksbury, UK

The tsunami of Boxing Day, 2004, was caused by a massive earthquake under the Indian Ocean. The subsequent waves killed 250,000 people and leveled entire towns across multiple countries from Thailand to Indonesia to India to Sri Lanka. It remains the deadliest natural disaster in history.

1. Pierre Caliste Landry
   Hiram Revels
2. Obama
   Joseph Rainey

The election of Barack Obama by a massive margin over Republican candidate John McCain broke the highest racial barrier in the U.S. and proved that there was no role that a black American could not aspire to hold.

1. Mafia shoot-out at Little Italy restaurant
   murder in a Queens restaurant
2. gang war in red​ light district of Philadelphia
   ancient unsolved murder victim discovered in a former speakeasy, now strip club

A psycho broke into a Queens restaurant, shot the owner, and when finding out a female customer was a mortician, had her cut off the victim's head. It wasn't really a topless bar, but the headline was too good to pass up.

1. start of the second Iraq War
   start of the first Iraq War
2. start of the Falklands War
   start of the war in Afghanistan

This was a disparaging headline by the New York Post to comment on how several American allies - including France, Germany, and others - refused to back America going to war in Iraq to: a) punish Saddam Hussein for 9/11, b) take away Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, c) depose Saddam Hussein, or d) bring democracy to the Middle East (since Saddam Hussein was not involved in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and had no weapons of mass destruction, the publicly-stated reason for the war kept changing).

1. Dewey defeats Truman
   Truman defeats Dewey
2. Neither Truman nor Dewey was actually a candidate
   It was a tie

This headline is completely wrong. The paper was so sure that upset Republican challenger Dewey would beat incumbent Truman that they went to press in one of the famous screw-ups in electoral history.

1. discovery of DNA's structure
   discovery of Buckminsterfullerene structure​
2. discovery of penicillin
   the first heart transplant

This headline is about the discovery of the structure of DNA, for which credit was taken by Francis Crick and James Watson, and later shared with Rosalind Franklin.

1. the bombing of Omagh
   the bombing of the Conservative Party Conference
2. the bombing of Manchester city center
   the bombing of Harrods department store

The Conservative Party was having its annual conference in Brighton when the hotel was bombed by the IRA. Prime Minister​ Margaret Thatcher, who needed very little sleep, was awake despite it being 3 a.m. She, therefore, was already fully dressed and appeared looking immaculate and completely unruffled in front of the media. One member of Parliament was killed and five injured, but the main targets - Thatcher and her Cabinet - were unharmed. Instead of canceling the conference, Thatcher insisted that the local Marks & Spencer department store open early so everyone could buy clothes (as they had been evacuated from the hotel in their nightwear), and went ahead. She was said to be the only person wearing a non-M&S outfit.

1. the Montgomery Bus Boycott
   Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of the bus
2. the march from Selma
   schools are desegregated in the South

The march from Selma to Montgomery was a Civil Rights march lasting several days. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders peacefully walked across Alabama to show that they would not be cowed. It was a turning point in progress towards the Voting Rights Act and a more civilized society.

1. A tiger escaped the zoo and rampaged across a golf course
   Golfer Tiger Woods behaved badly at the Masters when given a penalty
2. Tiger Woods was caught cheating on his wife
   Golfer Tiger Woods ran naked through the streets of Florida

Tiger Woods was indeed a seemingly wholesome man revealed to be cheating on his unsuspecting wife - but this headline refers to him doing what is called an "improper drop" when moving his ball when given a penalty at the Masters. It was all part of his downward spiral.

1. Panama
   Suez
2. Eerie
   Kiel

The construction of the Panama Canal was brought about by the Spooner Act which authorized Congress to pay for the canal. It transformed world trade by eliminating the need for ships to go all the way around Cape Horn on the southern tip of Chile.

1. Wall Street Crash
   Wall Street first established
2. Wall Street first breaks through $16 million in sales in one day
   Wall Street goes electronic

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 created a massive sell-off that led to plummeting stock values, a crash in real estate, and a years-long recession with mass unemployment.

1. Edward VII
   Elizabeth II
2. Edward VIII
   George VI

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1952 and remains the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

1. Hitler let off after serving a short sentence following World War II
   Hitler is rehabilitated and decides to totally quit politics and not take over Germany
2. Hitler goes to prison for writing Mein Kampf
   Hitler goes to prison for rioting

This headline is unbelievably wrong, of course. Hitler put up a good front convincing people he was a rehabilitated man in 1924, but within a year he had published Mein Kampf and was preparing to smash up the existing world order. He ended up starting a war that killed 50 million people, of whom an estimated 6 million were murdered by his organized system of death camps. He certainly wasn't tamed in the '20s, but ​the world might have turned out better if he had been.

1. the destruction of the town of Scottsboro, a largely black town
   the conviction of the famous Scottsboro Boys for a crime they did not commit
2. the lynching of two innocent black men in Scottsboro
   the taking of a bakery away from its black owners in Scottsboro

The Scottsboro Boys were accused of assaulting two white women who were found riding a box car illegally with them. Despite the fact that both women said nothing happened, the nine men were subjected to trial after trial in a gross violation of their Constitutional Rights. Leader Hayward Patterson died in jail after 20 years. Their tragedy is one of the events that galvanized the Civil Rights movement.

1. John Major
   Tony Blair
2. Margaret Thatcher
   Harold Wilson

Thatcher stormed into office in 1979 and won three elections. Love her or hate her - and most British people do, very strongly (one or other) - she helped bring about the fall of communism and is one of the most consequential prime ministers since World War II.

1. bombing of Pearl Harbor
   tsunami in Hawaii
2. earthquake in Hawaii
   missile test accidentally hit Hawaii

The bombing of Pearl Harbor inspired the U.S. to join World War II against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. President Roosevelt had already wanted to join the war which Allies like Britain and France were already fighting, so he was ready to sign the order after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

1. Truman
   Carter
2. Clinton
   Reagan

President Reagan dislodged the widely unpopular and weak Jimmy Carter and ushered in his "Reagan Revolution" with a landslide.

1. the launch of Yuri Gagarin
   the launch of Sputnik
2. the launch of Soyuz I
   the launch of Laika

Sputnik was the first object ever to go into space, meaning the USSR proved its technological superiority, which it did again when it later put cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space. NASA was galvanized to be first to the moon, which it later achieved.

1. explosion on Apollo 13
   explosion of space shuttle Columbia
2. decompression of Soyuz 11
   explosion of the Challenger shuttle

The Challenger shuttle was carrying the first civilian to go into space: teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe. Challenger had flown many missions before and was considered safe, but this time it blew up after launch. It is believed that the crew was alive to experience its plunge out of the sky and eventual final explosion at 74 seconds into the flight.

1. a fake story planted by anti-LGBT activists
   the first (inaccurate) media coverage of AIDS
2. an outbreak of cancer that affected many people but was first noticed among gay people
   a hoax story based on a misunderstanding by a journalist

This headline is not accurate, but it is important: it is the first time the mainstream media commented on the developing HIV/AIDS epidemic. While AIDS does not only affect homosexual people, it was initially thought to be a "gay cancer" and LGBT people were stigmatized as a result. The Reagan administration refused to acknowledge its existence for several more years. Fortunately, in Britain, Thatcher's government was more forthcoming and educated the public. HIV/AIDS is now most common in Africa and has killed millions. Since the virus is preventable and now very treatable - though not curable - failure to act early and give it the resources it needed is considered largely responsible for many of those deaths.

1. Lockerbie bombing of PanAm flight 103
   crash-landing of British Airways flight 38 at Heathrow
2. successful water landing of US Airways flight 1549
   disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370

US Airways flight 1549, piloted by Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, suffered double birdstrikes at 3,000 feet after leaving LaGuardia. Both engines flamed out. The pilots initially hoped to return to the runway or land at the nearby private Teterboro Airport but did not have the time. Sully made the decision to land on the Hudson and pulled off the first successful water landing of a commercial flight. No one died. The incident is known as the Miracle on the Hudson.

1. Michael Jackson
   Elvis
2. Bob Marley
   Bruce Springsteen

Elvis' death was caused by a massive heart attack, reportedly brought on by his drug use and dissolute lifestyle. "The King" was considered the voice of rock and roll, but the genre continued to thrive after his death.

1. death of Saddam Hussein
   death of Osama bin Laden
2. death of Muammar Gaddafi
   deposing of Hosni Mubarak

This is the headline quoting President Barack Obama after he ordered the successful raid on the compound where Osama Bin Laden was hiding. Bin Laden is accused of murdering nearly 3,000 Americans in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. He evaded capture for nearly 10 years.

1. Hiroshima bombing
   Nagasaki bombing
2. Chernobyl meltdown
   Three Mile Island meltdown

The meltdown of the badly-maintained nuclear plant at Chernobyl killed 2,000 people and prompted the evacuation of a town. Radiation scattered across Europe. The total death toll will never be known.

1. Saigon, Vietcong
   Japan, US
2. Afghanistan, US
   South Korea, North Korea

The missing words are "Saigon" and "Vietcong". This headline marks the fall of the capital of Vietnam to the forces of communism, and America's subsequent withdrawal.

1. aftermath of the 2017 wildfires
   death of Rodney King
2. acquittal of Rodney King's killers
   arrest of OJ Simpson

Rodney King was an African-American cab driver who was beaten to death by police. The incident was captured on video. King had been speeding and when the police caught him, instead of simply arresting him, they beat him. Witness George Holliday recorded the incident. The jury acquitted the cops and riots ensued.

1. bombing of Hiroshima
   The Dust Bowl
2. eruption of Mount St. Helen's
   eruption of Mount Tambora

The Dust Bowl was a tragedy prompted by a combination of drought and irresponsible farming methods not suited to the relatively dry conditions of the Midwest. It led to the loss of 80- 90 percent of good topsoil from parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and beyond. Millions faced starvation and moved to the cities, where they were often unable to find work due to the Great Depression's lingering effects.

1. tsunami in San Francisco
   earthquake in San Francisco
2. massive plague in San Francisco
   fire in San Francisco

The famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906 had an estimated magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter Scale. While most modern buildings might withstand this, in those days, it was no surprise that many died or were left homeless.

1. Confederacy wins the Civil War
   Confederacy loses the Civil War
2. Confederate paper believes Civil War is won
   Confederate propaganda tried to fool the North

This southern newspaper had the wrong end of the stick. The Confederacy never took Washington and the Civil War lasted another three years, and the South's ultimate defeat.

1. death of Chancellor Kohl
   death of Hitler
2. death of Khrushchev
   fall of the Berlin wall

This headline is about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Translation: "The wall is down! Berlin is Berlin again!"

1. Bitcoin crash
   Wall Street Crash
2. The Great Depression
   The Great Recession

The Sun wrote this headline to note that no one involved in the crash that caused the Great Recession - when subprime mortgage bundling led to the economy's collapse - served any prison time for it.