On 24 October 1975, 90% of Icelandic women walked off the job, both paid and unpaid, bringing the country to a standstill and changing its political landscape forever. The same date also saw the disastrous 1960 Nedelin catastrophe at Baikonur Cosmodrome, where over 100 Soviet space personnel died in a classified rocket explosion that remained secret for decades. In 1596, Philip II of Spain launched his second armada against England, only to be driven back by storms off Cape Finisterre. And in 1998, a Wisconsin-born monk in Montana declared himself Pope Pius XIII, leading a small sedevacantist congregation that rejected post-Vatican II papal authority. Four stories of ambition, defiance, disaster, and extraordinary confidence, all falling on the same calendar square.
