In a famous 1964 speech, Malcolm X said the choice facing America was "the ___ or the bullet". What word completes it?

After a 1927 demonstration of which new technology did the April 8 New York Times say "commercial use in doubt"? After a fatwa was issued against him in February 1989, which author went into hiding under police protection? After a German blitzkrieg, which country's King Leopold III surrendered on May 28, 1940? After a large French army was wiped out by yellow fever on which island in 1802, Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana? After a long struggle, Estonia, Latvia and which other Baltic republic had their independence recognized on September 6… After a nervous breakdown in 1908, which painter grew more positive and created murals for the University of Oslo? After a poor reception in Naples in 1901, which tenor vowed never to sing there again, and never did? After he refused to help New York City in its 1975 fiscal crisis, a Daily News headline read "___ to City: Drop Dead".…