History Tap No. 15: October 13, 2026

Round 1: landmark

Grand Central Terminal

Opened in Manhattan, New York, on February 2, 1913.

• Grand Central Terminal is one of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions, with 21.6 million visitors in 2018, excluding train and subway passengers.
• The terminal is the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.
• It also serves the Long Island Rail Road through Grand Central Madison, a 16-acre (6.5 ha) addition to the station located underneath the Metro-North tracks, built from 2007 to 2023.

Round 2: landmark

Yellowstone National Park

Established in Idaho, Wyoming, on March 1, 1872.

• Yellowstone was the first national park in the US, and is also widely understood to be the first national park in the world.
• The park was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress through the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.
• Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years.

Round 3: landmark

Mall of America

Opened in Bloomington, Minnesota, on August 11, 1992.

• It opened in August 1992 on the former site of Metropolitan Stadium, and is the largest mall in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and the 12th largest shopping mall in the world.
• Triple Five Group also owns the second largest mall in the United States, American Dream in Bergen County, New Jersey, and the largest mall in Canada, being West Edmonton Mall in Alberta.
• Draws about 40,000,000 visitors a year.

Round 4: pop culture, world

2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony

Happened in United Kingdom, in 2012.

• The stadium had been turned into a giant representation of the Union Flag, designed by Damien Hirst.
• An average of 23.2 million viewers in the United Kingdom watched the event, with an estimated 750 million worldwide.
• Around 4,100 people partook in the ceremony; which reportedly cost £20 million.

Round 5: historic event, world

Wagner Group rebellion

Happened in Russia, in 2023.

• Ground defenses were concentrated on the approach to Moscow, but before Wagner Group could reach them, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko brokered a settlement with Prigozhin, who subsequently agreed to halt the rebellion.
• Armed with mobile anti-aircraft systems, they repelled the Russian military's aerial attacks, which ultimately failed to deter the Wagner column's progress.
• Wagner mercenaries first seized Rostov-on-Don, where the Southern Military District is headquartered, while an armored column of theirs advanced through Voronezh Oblast and towards Moscow.