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Anti-Iranian protesters in the US. What most of these people failed to realize is that Iranians who had chosen to live in America already rejected the Iranian regime, and as such were not "enemies of America". (Flickr) On this day in 1981, 52 American hostages were released from captivity after an agreement was signed between…
When referring to various parts of the world, people use terms like "third world countries" or "first world powers". This language has generally fallen out of favour; ranking different countries based on their wealth or prosperity strikes many people as outdated, even colonial. But what is the basis for this classification in the first place?…
Militia fighters engage an unknown enemy during the Civil War, by Catherine Leroy. (Pinterest) On this day in 1976, forces from the Christian Lebanese Front militia and Phalangists overran a Muslim slum in East Beirut and began the Karantina Massacre. 1,500 civilians - Muslims from Syria, Kurdistan and Palestine - were killed in a stunning…
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…
A Polish crowd welcomes a Soviet ISU-152 tank to Warsaw. Their enthusiasm was likely short-lived. (Twitter.com) On this day in 1945, units of the Soviet Red Army launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive, an effort to capture strategic Polish population centres including Warsaw and Kraków near the end of WWII. Under the command of Soviet Marshals Georgy…
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