Learn History on Your Schedule.
Eisenhower talks with 101s Airborne paratroopers prior to their jump into France. (Wikimedia Commons) 1943 was a turning point in WWII. Axis (German, Italian and Japanese) forces had been pushed out of North Africa, Allied forces were marching their way into mainland Italy and the Soviet Red Army had finally eliminated the German 6th Army…
Women "human computers" working on the Manhattan Project. (Flickr) On this day in 1942, Chicago Pile-1 (or CP-1) initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under the football grandstands at Chicago University. The very first successful nuclear reactor, CP-1 was built by a team of brains led by Enrico Fermi, an American physicist. While CP-1…
An early 1910s postcard depicting the Shaw Building. (Flickr) On this day in 1865, Shaw University - the US South's first historically Black college - was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. American Baptist Minister Henry Martin Tupper led the construction of school buildings around his Second Baptist Church of Raleigh, and began teaching freedmen (former…
An outdated Iraqi T-72 is used by Coalition members to clear a minefield. Much of Kuwait is flat, and Coalition tanks were able to snipe Iraqi tanks from many kilometres away. (Wikimedia Commons) In the spring and summer of 1990, relations between Kuwait and Iraq began to break down. Iraq had borrowed huge amounts of…
"The Battle of Sinop" by Ivan Konstantinovič Ajvazovskij. (Wikipedia) On this day in 1853, the naval Battle of Sinop took place between ships from the Ottoman Empire and the Imperial Russian Navy. The engagement was part of the Crimean War; the conflict was a result of the Ottoman Empire (or, the Turkish Empire) falling into…
The Tang Dynasty's flag. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 618, the future Tang Dynasty fought rival Qin forces in the Shaanxi province of China. The Qin, led by Emperor Wu, had taken control of much of China after the collapse of the Sui dynasty in 617. After a 60 day siege, the Tang attacked…
Irish Free State soldiers take a break from fighting in the aftermath of the partitioning of Northern Ireland, a result of the War of Independence. Their opponents at the time were anti-treaty IRA members. (source: MediaDrumWorld.com) On this day in 1920, members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) - a militant Irish republican movement -…
German 6th Army troops pinned down by Soviet sniper fire in Stalingrad. (source: Wikimedia Commons) In the summer of 1941 the German army kicked off Operation Barbarossa, the long-awaited invasion of the Soviet Union. Army units of the Wehrmacht (German Army) as well as troops from friendly Axis nations like Romania and Hungary made massive…
L-R: Stresemann, Chamberlain (UK) and Briand (France) hammering out the Treaty of Locarno in 1925. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1925, the German parliament ratified (signed into law) the Treaty of Locarno. Signed by France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and England, the treaty had three main goals: solidify Europe's post-WWI borders, get Germany into…
Finns prepare to defend their position against a Soviet advance during the Winter War. (source: Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1939, the Soviet Red Army fired seven artillery shells at Mainila, a Russian village 800 metres from the Russian-Finnish border. Claiming that Finnish units had fired on Russian civilians unprovoked, the Shelling of Mainila…
ASAP History 