1st January 1992

El Cid (1044-1099)

Tizona is now one of Spain's most cherished relics and can be found at the Army Museum in Madrid.

A Portcullis

There would often be two portcullises to the main entrance. The one closest to the inside would be closed first and then the one furthest away. This was used to trap the enemy and often, burning wood or hot oil would be poured onto them from the roof. Also, archers could shoot arrows at the trapped enemies. There were often arrow holes in the sides of the walls for archers and crossbowman to eliminate the besieging army.

Kurl Waldheim

Throughout his term as Austrian president (1986-1992), Waldheim and his wife Elisabeth were officially deemed personae non gratae by the United States. In 1987, they were put on a watch list of persons banned from entering the United States and remained on the list even after the publication of the International Committee of Historian's report on his military past. He also was neither invited and therefore did not visit any other Western countries during his term as Austrian president. Waldheim therefore concentrated his state visits on the Middle East, the Vatican as well as some communist states.

Slaves

The Servile Wars were a series of three slave revolts in the late Roman Republic. Spartacus led the third revolt in 73BC - 71BC.

Richard Nixon (1913-1994)

He is also the only President of the United States to have resigned from the office.

The Boxer Rebellion

Reforms implemented after the crises of 1900 laid the foundation for the end of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the modern Chinese Republic.

Simeon I the Great

His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture. During Simeon's rule, Bulgaria spread over a territory between the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea, and the new Bulgarian capital Preslav was said to rival Constantinople.

Robben Island

Notable amongst the prisoners were Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Tokyo Sexwale, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Brutus and Robert Sobukwe.

Tokyo Rose

The name is usually associated with Iva Toguri D'Aquino (1916 - 2006). She was initially convicted of treason but was ultimately pardoned by Gerald Ford in 1977.

Rudolph Hess

On the eve of Germany's war with the Soviet Union, he flew to Glasgow, Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with Britian, but was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life internment at Spandau Prison, where he died in 1987. He has since become a figure of veneration among neo-Nazis and anti-Semites.

Sick man of Europe

Later, this view led the Allies in World War I to underestimate the Ottoman Empire, leading in part to the disastrous Dardanelles Campaign (The Battle of Gallipoli).

Osirak Nuclear Reactor

It was constructed by the Iraqi government at the Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, 18 km (11 miles) south-east of Baghdad in 1977. The facility was completely destroyed by American aircraft during the 1991 Gulf War.

William Joseph Donovan (1883-1959)

Eisenhower referred to him as "the Last Hero," which later became the title of his biography.

At Rorke's Drift

The events surrounding the assault on Rorke's Drift were first dramatised by military painters, notably Elizabeth Butler and Alphonse de Neuville. Their work was vastly popular in its day among the citizens of the British empire, but virtually forgotten by the time the film 'Zulu' was released in 1964. The battle was given a chapter in military historian Victor Davis Hanson's book 'Carnage and Culture' as one of several landmark battles demonstrating the superior effectiveness of western military practices.

The Cambridge Five (also sometimes known as the Cambridge Four)

The ring has been proven to have included Kim Philby (cryptonym: Stanley), Donald Duart Maclean (cryptonym: Homer), Guy Burgess (cryptonym: Hicks), and Anthony Blunt (cryptonym: Johnson). Several other persons have been suggested as probably or possibly belonging. They were originally known as the Cambridge Spy Ring because all known members of the ring were recruited at Trinity College, Cambridge, while members of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret, elite debating society based around Trinity and King's.

The Red Baron

In the comic strip Peanuts, and in later television specials, one of Snoopy's fantasies portrays him as a World War I flying ace (Arthur Brown's nickname was Snoopy), piloting a Sopwith Camel and carrying a personal grudge against the Red Baron.

The Maginot Line

The Maginot Line named after French minister of defence André Maginot was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, machine gun posts and other defenses which France constructed along its borders with Germany and with Italy, in the light of experience from World War I, and in the run-up to World War II. However, the fortification system utterly failed to contain the invading German forces in World War II, who largely manuevered around it.

El Salvador and Honduras

Tensions between the two nations were evidenced by a football competition, but the war was not caused by football, as it has been popularly acknowledged internationally. The war was caused by political differences between Hondurans and Salvadorans, including immigration from El Salvador to Honduras. The name is derived from the sensationalistic way in which international reporters covered the war, which overlapped with rioting from a series of football matches.

William Tell

Historians continue to argue over the authenticity of Tells' existence.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh

To show respect to this name, a fully residential public university was established in Dhaka in 1970 as Jahangir Nagar University.

Eli Cohen

Cohen made critical friendships with high-ranking Syrian generals while undercover and according to his brother and fellow Mossad agent, Maurice Cohen, Eli Cohen was third in line to succeed as president of Syria, at the time he was discovered. In January 1965, hired Soviet experts caught him in the act of sending a radio message after large amounts of radio interference brought attention and he was publicly hanged by Syria on May 18, 1965.

The Crimean War (1854-56)

It was fought between Imperial Russia on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The war is associated with the first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions such as the telegraph and is also credited by many as being the first modern war, employing trenches and blind artillery fire (gunners often relied on spotters rather than actually being on the battlefield).

The Appian Way

It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia in southeast Italy.

Iron Curtain

German politician Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk was the first to refer to an "Iron Curtain" coming down across Europe after World War II, although he borrowed the expression from Joseph Goebbels.

Anne Frank

Pakistan

He played an influential role in the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. In 1947, he became the prime minister of Pakistan, a position that he held until his assassination in October 1951. In Pakistan, he is regarded as the right-hand man of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League and first governor-general of Pakistan.

The Aztec

It was built on an island in Lake Texcoco in what is now the Federal District in central Mexico. It was founded in 1325 when according to legend a tribe of Nahua people settled on the island following the commandment of their god Huitzilopochtli. By 1428 the Aztec state had emerged and Tenochtitlan was the most important city in central Mexico. At its height it was one of the largest cities in the world, with over 200,000 inhabitants. The city was conquered in 1521 by Spanish conquistadors and Mexico City was founded in its place.

The Great Game

The term was later popularized by British novelist Rudyard Kipling in his work 'Kim'. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 a second, less intensive phase followed.

Toledo

The Soviet Union

The incorporation of West Germany into NATO in 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange, Foreign Minister of Norway at the time. One of its immediate results was the creation of the Warsaw Pact, signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union and its satellite states, as a formal response to this event.

The Phoenicians

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, between the period of 1200 BC to 900 BC.

Mexico

On March 11, 1917 Venustiano Carranza was elected the first president under the new Mexican Constitution of 1917. Fighting continued with factions who would not accept Carranza's rule, ranging from reactionary landowners and conservative Catholics to the forces of Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Villa. Carranza ordered a bounty put on Zapata's head, leading to Zapata's assassination.

The Rubicon

"Crossing the Rubicon" is a popular idiom meaning to go past a point of no return because it was an ancient boundary between Gaul and Italy. The river is notable as Roman law forbade any general from crossing it with an army.

The Longbow

By the time of the Hundred Years' War, the English had learned how to employ massed archery as an instrument of tactical dominance, with their English longbows. They would form in a line or lines with arrows stuck in the ground in front of them so they could fire and easily reload. They would fire continuously, and if they had multiple rows they would fire in a round. This would create a rain of arrows to terrify the enemy.

Costa Rica

On December 1, 1948, President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica abolished the country's army after victory in the civil war in that year. In a ceremony in the Cuartel Bellavista, Figueres broke a wall with a mallet symbolizing the end of Costa Rica's military spirit. In 1949 the abolition of the military was introduced in the Article 12 of the Costa Rican Constitution.

26th of July Movement

Its name originated from the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on July 26, 1953. The movement was reorganized in Mexico in 1955 by a group of 82 exiled revolutionaries (including Fidel and his brother Raúl Castro, as well as the Argentinian Che Guevara).

Pindar (c.522BC - 443BC)

Aribert Heim

As an SS doctor in a concentration camp in Mauthausen (where many Spanish Republicans were sent), he is accused of killing many inmates with sadistic methods. As of 2006, Heim has been assumed to be still alive.

Hirohito (1901–1989)

The word Shôwa is the name of the era that corresponded with the emperor's reign, and was made the emperor's own name upon his death, the name by which he is now exclusively referred to in Japan. Although he was and continues to be known outside of Japan by his personal name, Hirohito, in Japan use of an emperor's personal name is considered overly familiar or derogatory. His reign was the longest of any historical Japanese emperor, and he oversaw many significant changes to Japanese society.

"One out of many": In Latin - 'E' = out of, from; pluribus = many; unum = one

The motto was selected by the first Great Seal committee in 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution. "E pluribus unum" referred to the integration of the 13 independent colonies into one united country, and has taken on an additional meaning, given the pluralistic nature of American society from immigration. The motto itself has thirteen letters.

Joan of Arc (c.1412 – 1431)

Initially called Domrémy, the place has been renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle after Joan's nickname, la pucelle d'Orléans (the maid of Orléans). This village was exempted from taxes in 1429 by king Charles VII as Joan of Arc's only request for her help in ridding France of the English. However after the French revolution Domremy was required to pay taxes.

Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand

Although Bhumibol is a constitutional monarch, he has several times made decisive interventions in Thai politics, including the 2005-2006 Thai political crisis. He was credited with facilitating Thailand's transition to democracy in the 1990s, although in earlier periods of his reign he supported military regimes.

Bazooka

It was nicknamed "bazooka" from a vague resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name invented and used by Bob Burns. The word "bazooka" is often incorrectly used to refer to any shoulder-launched missile weapon.

Attack on Pearl Harbor drawing the US into WWII

This battle has had history-altering consequences. It only had a small strategic military effect because the Japanese Navy failed to sink U.S. aircraft carriers or destroy the Submarine Base, but even if this had been achieved, it would not have helped Japan in the long term. The attack firmly drew the United States and its massive industrial and service economy into World War II.

Electrocution

Churchill reportedly said "Contemplate that if Hitler falls into our hands we shall certainly put him to death. This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument – electric chair, for gangsters no doubt available on Lease Lend."

The birth of Alexander

Alexander later offered to pay for the Temple's rebuilding, but the Ephesians refused. Eventually, the temple was restored after Alexander's death, in 323 BC.

A Silver dollar

The Potomac is over a mile wide at Mt Vernon, and it is more likely that he threw it across the Rappahannock.

St Helena

In October 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at Leipzig and then invaded France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate in April of the following year and was exiled to the island of Elba. Less than a year later, he escaped to France and regained control of the government. This second period of Napoleonic rule, now known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), ended quickly with his defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Napoleon spent the remaining six years of his life under British supervision on the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

Earliest Egyptian history

The main fragment has been in Palermo since 1866, though it was discovered by a visiting French archaeologist in 1895 and first published, by Heinrich Schäfer, in 1902. It is currently in the collection of the Palermo Archeological Museum, Sicily, although there are also further sizeable pieces in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, one discovered in 1910 another purchased on the market as recently as 1963, and in the museum of University College London, given by Sir Flinders Petrie. The engraved stone must originally have been about 2.2 m long, 0.61 m wide and 6.5 cm thick, but most of it is now missing, and there is no surviving information about its provenance, though a further fragment was excavated at Memphis.

The House of Windsor

The name of the house was originally the House of Wettin but in 1917, during World War I, anti-German feeling among the people resulted in the Royal Family exchanging use of all of their German titles and house names for English-sounding versions.

Portugal

Portugal and China agreed in 1979 to regard Macau as "a Chinese territory under (temporary) Portuguese administration". Negotiations between the Chinese and Portuguese governments on the question of Macau started in June 1986. In 1987, an international treaty, known as the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, was signed to make Macau a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese government assumed sovereignty over Macau on December 20, 1999, ending 329 years of Portuguese rule.

Socrates

Plato described Socrates' death and this dialogue in the 'Phaedo'

George Gallup, the inventor of the Gallup poll.

However, twelve years later, his organization had its moment of greatest ignominy, when it predicted that Thomas Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman in the 1948 election, by five to 15 percentage points whereas the opposite happened. Gallup believed the error was mostly due to ending his polling three weeks before Election Day.

Robert I, King of Scots usually known as Robert the Bruce

Robert The Bruce was portrayed in £1 banknote of Clydesdale Bank, one of the three Scottish banks with right to issue banknotes, from 1981 to 1989. When Clydesdale Bank discontinued £1 banknotes, Robert The Bruce's portrait was moved into the bank's £20 banknote in 1990 and it has remained there to date.

Buffalo Soldiers

There is some controversy as to where the name originated. Some sources assert that the nickname was given out of respect and the fierce fighting ability of the 10th cavalry. Other sources assert that Native Americans called the black cavalry troops "buffalo soldiers" because of their dark curly hair, which resembled a buffalo's coat.

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D Roosevelt

Lech Walesa (1943 - )

He also served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

The Spanish Inquisition

Khmer Rouge

It was the ruling political party of Cambodia -- which it renamed to Democratic Kampuchea -- from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor.

The Battle of Antietam fought on Sep 17, 1862

It was the first major battle in the American civil war to take place on Northern soil.

Suleiman the Magnificent

In the Islamic world, he is known as the Lawgiver, deriving from his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Under his leadership, the Ottoman Empire reached its Golden Age and became a world power.

Warsaw Pact

It was established on May 1, 1955 and lasted throughout the Cold War until certain member nations began withdrawing in 1989, following the collapse of the Eastern bloc and political changes in the Soviet Union.

Nuts!

The official reply: "To the German Commander, NUTS!, The American Commander" was typed and delivered by Colonel Harper to the German delegation. Harper had to explain the meaning of the word to the Germans. This is also referenced in the movie 'Patton'.

The Buck Stops Here

Approximately 2-1/2" x 13" in size and mounted on walnut base, the painted glass sign also has the words "I'm From Missouri" on the reverse side. It appeared at different times on Trumans' desk until late in his administration.

The Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire of 1871-1918

The Allied Powers (led by France, Russia, the British Empire, and later, Italy and the United States), defeated the Central Powers, led by Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire.

Also called 'the Great War', and 'The War to End All Wars', the war caused the disintegration of four empires: the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian. World War I created a decisive break with the old world order that had emerged after the Napoleonic Wars, which was modified by the mid-19th century’s nationalistic revolutions.

Fatman - Bockscar

An implosion-type weapon with a plutonium core, 'Fat Man' was detonated at an altitude of about 1,800 feet (550 m) over the city, and was dropped from a B-29 bomber Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. Because of Nagasaki's hilly terrain, the damage was somewhat less extensive than that in relatively flat Hiroshima. An estimated 40,000 people were killed outright by the bombing ,and about 25,000 were injured. Many thousands more would die later from related injuries, and radiation sickness from nuclear fallout.

All are honorary citizens of the US

A non-United States citizen of exceptional merit may be declared an Honorary Citizen of the United States by the President pursuant to an Act of Congress. Only Churchill and Teresa were so honored during their lifetime.

Checkpoint Charlie

It became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of east and west, and — for some East Germans — a gateway to freedom. It is frequently featured in spy movies and books, such as those by John le Carré.

The Long March

There was not one Long March, but several, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The most well known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed some 12,500 kilometers (8,000 miles) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.

Czech Republic and Slovakia

The term Velvet Divorce is used to liken this event to the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the formation of a new, non-Communist government.

Sidney Reilly

Like his literary counterpart, Reilly was a debonair playboy who lived extravagantly, spoke a multitude of languages, and was as charismatic as he was brilliant. Much of Reilly's true character remains a mystery.

The Rum Rebellion

He banned the Olympic games

Battle of the Three Emperors

On December 2, 1805, French troops decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army after nearly nine hours of difficult fighting in many sectors. The battle is often regarded as a tactical masterpiece. It is also a major event in Leo Tolstoy's novel 'War and Peace'.

Latin

Although now widely considered a dead language, with few fluent speakers and no native ones, Latin has had a significant influence on many other languages still thriving today, including English, and continues to be an important source of vocabulary for science, academia, and law; it is also used by the Catholic Church, and still evolving, making it technically still alive.

The Regency

The term is often applied to the years between 1795 and 1830, a time characterised by distinctive fashions, politics and culture. It was a period of excess for the aristocracy: it was during this time that the Prince Regent built the Brighton Pavilion, for example. However, it was also an era of uncertainty caused by, for example, riots, the Napoleonic wars and a perceived threat of the English mimicking the French Revolution.

Ghana

The name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana that once roamed the west of Africa.

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia

It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. Designed between 1745 and 1747 to fulfil Frederick's need for a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court, the palace is little more than a large single-storey villa—more like the Château de Marly than Versailles.

Greek fire

The ingredients, process of manufacture, and usage were a very carefully guarded military secret. Although similar substances have been invented in the modern age, the exact composition of the original Greek fire is unknown.

Panmunjeom

It is considered one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. Panmunjeom is also mentioned in one of Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".

Sam Houston (1793 - 1863), for Tennessee and Texas

Houston was a key figure in the history of Texas, including periods as President of the Republic of Texas, Senator for Texas after it joined the Union, and finally as governor.

Hesiod

Hesiod's writings serve as a major source for knowledge of Greek mythology, farming techniques, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping. He wrote a poem of some 800 verses, the Works and Days, which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by.

Code of Hammurabi

It is one of the earliest extant sets of laws and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopotamia. It was created by Hammurabi (ca. 1810 BC – 1750 BC) who believed that he was chosen by the gods to deliver the law to his people.