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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…
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…
Earhart on one of her aircraft. (Earcraft? Eh...never mind.) (Pinterest) On this day in 1935, American pilot Amelia Earhart completed the first solo flight from Hawaii to California. The same route had claimed the lives of several pilots during the 1927 Dole Air Race, but for Amelia, the long lonely ride presented little challenge. She…
On this day in 1927, the classic science fiction film Metropolis was released in German cinemas. Directed by Fritz Lang, the film - which depicts a futuristic mega-city bristling with exciting new technology - took over a year to film and cost over 5 million Reichsmarks (€18 million if adjusted for inflation). The plot centres…
Jacobites (in kilts, obviously) engage British troops during the '45 Rebellion. (Wikimedia Commons) On this day in 1745, Jacobites occupied Stirling, England, during the '45 Rebellion (or, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745). The Jacobites - from the latin Jacobus, or James - were a political movement that aimed to place the House of Stuart back…
A French police operator from GIGN patrols Paris in the wake of a terror attack. (sn.at) On this day in 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo - a Parisian newspaper that featured controversial cartoons - and opened fire. After massacring a number of journalists and cartoonists at the paper's 11th arrondissement office,…
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