Learn History on Your Schedule.
The abbey, at top, is bombed; the town of Cassino (below) has already been reduced to rubble by Allied and German efforts. Peter Mcintyre (Flickr). On this day in 1944, Allied troops began their first assault on Monte Cassino, a Benedictine Abbey on the Winter Line, a German defensive position. Italy had the war begun…
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Brazil in 2010. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 2006, Liberia - a small country on the West African Coast - elected Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president. Sirleaf, a Harvard alumnus and experienced banker, was notable for being the first democratically-elected female head of state in African history. Sirleaf had run…
Fighters from UNITA's militant wing - Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola, or FALA - train with South African soldiers. (Pinterest) On this day in 1975, representatives from Portugal and Angola signed the Alvor Agreement, a grant of independence for the former colony. Beginning in 1961, a number of Angolan guerilla (militia) groups had…
US Marines engage IJA troops on Okinawa. (Britannica) By the spring of 1945, WWII was drawing to a close in Europe. The Axis in that region were either on the run (the Germans) or had already switched sides (the Italians). As Allied command began talking of dividing up liberated Europe in the wake of the…
Jefferson Airplane performs at a "Summer of Love" event in Haight-Ashbury. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1967, the Human Be-In took place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The event was organized in the wake of California's decision to ban LSD (a popular psychedelic drug) and involved almost 30,000 people. Speakers like Timothy Leary…
A group of Red Army men read Pravda. (24tv.ua) On this day in 1953, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article entitled "Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians." The article - which alleged that 9 famous Moscow doctors were plotting to poison high-level Soviet officials - was part of an effort…
ASAP History 