The Price of Ambition

The five moments in this challenge

The scenes are shown below — tap a card to reveal its place and year.

1. 

   Round 1 · 1917

   Halifax Explosion Devastates the Harbor

   Halifax, Canada

   Two ships, one fully loaded with wartime explosives, collided in the busy narrows. The resulting blast leveled the surrounding Canadian city, creating the largest human-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb.

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2. 

   Round 2 · 1880

   Ned Kelly's Last Stand at Glenrowan Inn

   Glenrowan, Australia

   Wearing heavy, cumbersome suits of homemade bulletproof armor fashioned from ploughshares, the notorious Australian bushranger and his gang made their final dramatic shootout against heavily armed police after attempting to derail a pursuit train.

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3. 

   Round 3 · 1832

   HMS Beagle Anchors in Tierra del Fuego

   Beagle Channel, Argentina

   During its famous second surveying voyage, Captain FitzRoy anchored in the icy southern channels, bringing a young Charles Darwin face-to-face with the rugged indigenous Yamana people and extreme Patagonian weather.

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4. 

   Round 4 · 1860

   Burke and Wills Expedition Departs Melbourne

   Melbourne, Australia

   Cheered by massive crowds, an ambitious expedition set off with newly imported camels to cross the unmapped Australian continent, though its leaders would tragically perish of starvation on the return journey.

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5. 

   Round 5 · 1300

   Construction of the Great Enclosure at Zimbabwe

   Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe

   At the heart of a thriving medieval African trading empire, stonemasons painstakingly dry-stacked millions of granite blocks to create sprawling walls nearly ten meters high, without using a single drop of mortar.

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