02/14 – The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

A police reenactment of the shooting in the wake of the 1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. (Daily Telegraph) On this day in 1929, seven men from the Irish North Side Mob gathered in a garage in Lincoln Park, Chicago in order to buy stolen Canadian whiskey. Albert Kachellek, the gang's second-in-command, was there,…

02/13 – The Bombing of Dresden

An RAF bomber during a sortie over Germany during WWII. (History.com) On this day in 1945, over 1,200 Allied bomber aircraft took to the skies for an attack on Dresden, an industrial city in Eastern Germany. That night, the first of four sorties (missions) began and, over the next 48 hours, 3,900 tonnes of incendiary…

02/12 – The Lahore Protests for Gender Equality

Women protesting in Lahore during the 1980s. (Pinterest) On this day in 1983, 100 women gathered in Lahore, Pakistan, to protest the Qanun-e-Shahadat (or Law of Evidence). Proposed by Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq, the bill held that, in civil court, a man's word counted for twice as much as a woman's. Naturally, the Law of Evidence…

02/11 – China Unbans Shakespeare

A crowd gathers in Manchuria, near North Korea, in 1978. They are fascinated to see Michael Arth, a white American photographer, in their village. During the Cultural Revolution, anything Western - from books to people - was hard to come by in the PRC. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1978, the People's Republic of…

02/10 – The Mongols Sack Baghdad

A modern re-enactment of the Mongol hordes that ravaged Baghdad, and brought an end to the Islamic Golden Age. (Cosmos Magazine Online) On this day in 1258, Mongol hordes entered Baghdad after 13 days of brutal siege warfare. Led by Hulagu Khan, the invaders sought to punish the city for its failure to pay taxes…

02/08 – Devyatayev’s Great Escape

A Heinkel HE 111 light bomber like the one Mikhail Devyatayev and his comrades stole in 1945. (Flickr) On this day in 1945, Soviet fighter pilot Mikhail Devyatayev and 9 others escaped from a Nazi labour camp located in the Baltic Sea. Shot down over the Eastern Front in 1944, Devyatayev was captured by German…

02/07 – The Maastricht Treaty

The EU flag flies at the Union's HQ in Brussels, Belgium. (Flickr) On this day in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed in the Netherlands by 12 member states, signalling the creation of the EU (European Union). Today, the EU is a historically unprecedented community that shares a common currency (the euro), open borders and…

02/06 – Dandara dos Palmares

A modern interpretation of warrior queen Dandara. (Youtube) On this day in 1694, warrior queen Dandara, a leader of free Alagoan Afro-Brazilians, committed suicide in order to avoid enslavement. Dandara was renowned throughout Alagoas for her expertise in capoeira - a form of martial combat developed by Brazilian slaves - and since a young age,…

02/05 – The UAR

Nasser in 1960. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1958, the newfound UAR (United Arab Republic,  الجمهورية العربية المتحدة‎ al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) chose its first president: Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Proposed as a pan-Arab state, the UAR was essentially a merger of Syria and Egypt. At the time, much of the Middle East was vulnerable…