Your World This Week, May 1 – 7

Published May 2, 2016
Updated May 1, 2016

Weasel Manages To Shut Down $7 Billion Machine

Weasel

Flickr

This week, a weasel took on the world’s most powerful particle accelerator — and won.

On Thursday night, a weasel wandered into the Large Hadron Collider’s transformer, causing an electrical outage and an unexpected shutdown for the $7 billion machine, Christian Science Monitor reported.

The weasel is apparently somewhat common in the Swiss countryside — where the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) houses the collider — is found.

5 Events To Know About This Week

Bin Laden Death

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House. Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images

  • May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden killed during Pakistan raid.
  • Kent State

    Kent State shootings. Flickr

  • May 4, 1970: Kent State protest against President Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia results in the death of four university students.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte

    Wikimedia Commons

  • May 5, 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies on the island of St. Helena.
  • Alan Shepard

    Wikimedia Commons

  • May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.
  • Sigmund Freud

    Wikimedia Commons

  • May 6, 1856: Sigmund Freud is born in what is now Příbor, Czech Republic.
  • All That's Interesting
    All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future.