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Andøya Rocket Range, site of Black Brant's fateful launch. (Thornews) On this day in 1995 - nearly four years after the end of the Cold War - the Russian Federation came within minutes of launching a nuclear strike on the United States. In the morning of January 25th, a rocket was detected by Russian early-warning…
Yokoi (centre left) upon his return to Japan in 1972. (History Collection) On this day in 1972, Shōichi Yokoi - a Sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army, or IJA - was found in a remote cave in the jungles Guam. Yokoi had served with the IJA's 38th Infantry Regiment during WWII, and fought in several…
Alphonse de Neuville's 1880 painting depicts the heroic British defense, based entirely on British eyewitness accounts. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1879, a group of roughly 150 British Red Coats completed their defence of Rorke's Drift - a trading post known as kwaJimu (Jim's Land) to the South African locals - against a force…
A women's march in the United States in 1970. (Skydancingblog.com) On this day in 1973, the American Supreme Court voted 7-2 in favour of legalizing abortion in all 50 US states following the landmark Roe v. Wade case. In December of 1971, a Texas woman - using the name Jane Roe - had challenged a…
Icelanders revolt. (AP) On this day in 2009, the largest protests in Icelandic history took place at the Althing (parliament building) in Reykjavik in response to the 2008 Financial Crash. Like billions of people around the world, Icelanders were furious with their leaders' handling of the crisis that devastated their economy. Beginning in 2008... The…
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generally fallen out of favour; ranking different countries based on their wealth or prosperity strikes many people as outdated, even colonial.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…
ASAP History 