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The flag of the GDR. (Wikimedia Commons) Erich Honecker, head of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1971 to 1989, once remarked that “Our GDR is a clean state. The standards for ethics […], decency and morality, are set in stone.” While he may have tried to apply this honourable standard to dealings in the public…
Gothic infantrymen - aided by their infamous heavy cavalry - literally stampeding over the corpses of fallen Roman Legionnaires. (VDOCUMENTS) On this day in 378, Roman Emperor Valens and 20,000 heavily-armed Legionnaires set off on an 8 mile (13km) march towards Adrianople, a large settlement in Western Turkey. Their target was an encampment of 20,000…
Continue reading ➞ 08/09 – Adrianople: The Road to Rome’s Ruin
Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, pictured here on their FBI "Missing" poster. (NPR) On this day in 1964, a shallow grave was discovered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the US Navy. Located in Mississippi's dense, swampy backcountry, the grave contained the bodies of three…
The Bonus Brigade in 1932. The movement garnered broad public support, and Hoover's ill-advised response to their protest helped ensure his loss in the 1932 election. (Public Domain) On this day in 1932, a well-disciplined mass of 43,000 protestors - American veterans of WWI and their families - descended on the US Capitol building in…
"Witch Hill / The Salem Martyr": Bridget Bishop, the first victim of Salem's murderous witch hunt, is led to the gallows. (New York Historical Society) On this day in 1692, an English woman by the name of Bridget Bishop was brought before a municipal court in Salem, Massachusetts. Settled in 1626 by Puritans (Protestant refugees…
Emperor Franz Joseph I attending a Hungarian cultural fair towards the end of the 19th century. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (or Ausgleich/Kiegyezés) was negotiated by leaders from both countries. The agreement bound Austria and Hungary - two states of the former Holy Roman Empire - together; they were governed…
Thousands of workers and students pictured in Tiananmen Square. Many of the people above would be dead soon after, victims of the PRC's effort to wipe out dissent. (People's World) On this day in 1989, thousands of Chinese student activists and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in a massive display of civil disobedience. Site…
When: 1914 - 1918 Beginning in 1914, World War I was history's first truly global conflict. Kickstarted by the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian nobleman in Serbia, the conflict rapidly escalated because of a complex series of secret alliances that bound the European powers into mutual defence agreements. As the first waves of men began dying…
A South American revolutionary, sometime during the Latin American Wars of Independence. (Age of Revolutions) On this day in 1809, a popular uprising began in Chuquisaca (now Sucre, modern-day Bolivia) against the Spanish colonial government. Concerned by events in Europe - the Spanish king Ferdinand VII had been deposed and replaced by a relative of…
Two German paratroopers surveying a distant fire in Crete. Although these men are heavily armed with rifles and submachine guns, many airborne troops struggled to find weapons once on the ground. (Imgur) On this day in 1941, the German invasion of Crete began. Home to the ancient Minoans - Europe's first advanced civilization - the…
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