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HEADLINES
A daily history game

Crime

Crime in five headlines

Five real newspaper headlines about crime, printed between 1915 and 2018, with their dates removed. Read each one and guess the year it was published. No multiple choice and no trivia questions, just the headline as it was printed.

There are 4 rounds of five in this topic, and a new one appears whenever the archive has enough for it.

Headline one

Ottoman forces begin mass deportation and slaughter of Armenian people

New York Times

Reveal the year

1915

The Ottoman Empire began systematic deportation and massacre of its Armenian population on April 24, 1915, a date now commemorated as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed through massacre, starvation, and forced marches. The Armenian Genocide is recognised by many countries and scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Headline two

More than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones die in mass poisoning at Peoples Temple settlement in Guyana

The San Francisco Chronicle

Reveal the year

1978

On 18 November 1978, over 900 members of the Peoples Temple religious cult died at Jonestown, a settlement in Guyana, South America, after cult leader Jim Jones ordered them to drink cyanide-laced punch. The deaths came hours after Jones's followers murdered visiting US Congressman Leo Ryan and journalists at a nearby airstrip. It remains the largest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the September 11 attacks.

Headline three

Not guilty: O.J. Simpson acquitted of murdering ex-wife and her friend in trial of the century

New York Daily News

Reveal the year

1995

On 3 October 1995, former NFL star and actor O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The televised verdict was watched by an estimated 150 million Americans and divided the nation along racial and cultural lines. The trial, lasting over nine months, became one of the most discussed legal proceedings in American history.

Headline four

WorldCom admits $3.8 billion fraud in biggest accounting scandal in US history

Wall Street Journal

Reveal the year

2002

WorldCom, one of the United States' largest telecommunications companies, revealed in June 2002 that it had improperly recorded $3.8 billion in expenses as capital investments, inflating its profits. The company filed for bankruptcy in July 2002, the largest in US history at that time. Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers was ultimately convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Headline five

Spy and daughter poisoned with nerve agent on English streets: Novichok attack in Salisbury points to Kremlin

The Guardian

Reveal the year

2018

On 4 March 2018, former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found critically ill on a bench in Salisbury, England, having been poisoned with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. British investigators identified two Russian GRU officers as suspects, and the UK government formally blamed the Russian state, triggering a major diplomatic crisis and the expulsion of dozens of diplomats on both sides.

Answer the five above to see your score.

Scoring works as it does in the daily game. Each headline is worth up to 100 points, and you lose two points for every year you are out. Being a decade wrong still earns you 80. A perfect round is 500.

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