Round 1
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but we do not republish it here. Recent events involving mass civilian casualties are excluded from our public archive under our content policy, whatever their place in the day’s puzzle.
Terra Tempus Daily #58 — July 28, 2026
These are the 5 rounds every player got on July 28, 2026, with the answers and the history behind them. This day is finished, so nothing here spoils a puzzle you can still play — today’s Daily Challenge is a different five events.
Not enough completed runs on this day to report an average without singling out an individual player’s score — we publish one from 5 finishers up.
Round 2
Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee Massacre · 1890 · 19th Century
Why there: The creek lay within the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where Lakota bands had been confined onto shrinking government-controlled land after being pushed off their traditional plains hunting grounds.
Why then: By 1890 the frontier was nearly closed, the bison exterminated, and desperate reservation communities embraced the Ghost Dance revival, which alarmed the U.S. Army into a disarmament campaign that turned deadly.
- The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred in December 1890 in South Dakota.
- Around 250-300 Lakota, including many women and children, were killed by the U.S. 7th Cavalry.
- It followed the rise of the Ghost Dance movement and the killing of Sitting Bull.
Round 3
Battle of Red Cliffs
Battle of Red Cliffs · 208 · Antiquity
Why there: The battle unfolded along the Yangtze, the wide southern river that formed a natural defensive barrier where the southern warlords could exploit their naval strength and force Cao Cao's northern, land-based army to fight on unfamiliar water.
Why then: With the Han dynasty's central authority collapsed in 208, rival warlords carved up the realm, and Cao Cao's bid to conquer the south before consolidation could set in made this the decisive moment that fixed the coming Three Kingdoms division.
- The Battle of Red Cliffs (208 CE) saw the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei defeat the much larger army of Cao Cao.
- Cao Cao's ships were reportedly linked together, making them vulnerable to a devastating fire attack.
- The battle paved the way for the Three Kingdoms period and is dramatized in the novel 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms.'
Round 4
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but the event belongs to one of our paid content modules, so we do not republish it on the free archive. It is still available in the app to anyone who owns that module.
Round 5
Austrian State Treaty
Austrian State Treaty · 1955 · 20th Century
Why there: Vienna, Austria's baroque imperial capital, was the seat of a country that lay across the Cold War fault line and had been carved into four occupation zones since 1945, making it the natural stage for the treaty ending that division.
Why then: By 1955 a post-Stalin thaw made the Soviets willing to trade withdrawal for guaranteed Austrian neutrality, allowing all four occupying powers to agree to leave a decade after the war rather than freeze the country in place as they had Germany.
- This is the Austrian State Treaty, signed at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna in 1955.
- Foreign Minister Leopold Figl declared 'Österreich ist frei!' (Austria is free).
- It ended a decade of joint Allied occupation by the US, USSR, UK, and France.
Every Daily Challenge is five real events, one from each of five different eras, identical for every player, scored up to 10,000 points a round on how close you land in space and in time. Read how to play, see where the events come from, or play today’s.