French revolution

Zhou’s answer related to events only three years earlier – the 1968 students’ riots in Paris, according to Nixon’s interpreter at the time. The story is used as evidence of the Chinese ability to think long-term.
(Acknowledgement)

Ethiopia

It was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. As a direct result of the battle, Italy signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa, recognizing Ethiopia as an independent state.
(Acknowledgement)

Site of executions where people were thrown/flung.

(Acknowledgement)

William Wallace

The phrase Alba gu bràth is often used as a political slogan in the campaign for Scottish independence.
(Acknowledgement)

The Temple of Artemis

It was at the hands of Herostratus who committed arson. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was moved and might have been destroyed by fire but it is not clear if it was deliberate. The four others that are now lost were lost to earthquakes. Enjoy the pyramids!
(Acknowledgement)

Iran-Iraq War

It began when Iraq invaded Iran via air and land on 22 September 1980 and finally ended with Resolution 598 on 20 August 1988 with a U.N.-brokered ceasefire which was accepted by both sides.
(Acknowledgement)

Sikhism

The territorial definition of the proposed country ranges from the Punjab state of India to the greater Punjab region, including the neighboring Indian states. The Punjab region has been the traditional homeland for the Sikhs. The movement is connected to Indira Gandhi's assassination, among others.
(Acknowledgement)

September 11

One of the theories is that the terrorists chose this date to redress the defeat.
(Acknowledgement)

Nuclear football

Since as in American football, a "Dropkick” needed a “football” in order to be put into effect. It accompanies the American president and is built around a sturdy aluminum frame, encased in black leather.
(Acknowledgement)

Jewish state

(Acknowledgement)

For flying in a hot-air balloon (Montgolfier brothers)

This demonstration was performed before a crowd that included King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. The flight lasted approximately eight minutes, covered two miles (3 km), and obtained an altitude of about 1,500 feet (460 m). The craft landed safely after flying.
(Acknowledgement)

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

(Acknowledgement)

Ferdinand Marcos of The Philippines

The identity of the perpetrators remains unclear. Suspects include left-wing activists, members of a local tribe - or possibly looters hunting for one of Marcos' legendary treasure troves.
(Acknowledgement)

Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980)

The airborne assault itself is also known as the Raid on Drvar. Tito, his principal headquarters staff and the allied military personnel escaped, despite their presence in Drvar at the time of the airborne assault. Yugoslav Partisans was Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement.
(Acknowledgement)

Spartacus (Servile Wars)

The final battle that saw the assumed defeat of Spartacus by Crassus took place in 71 BC. Though several historians claim he died during the battle, his body was never found.
(Acknowledgement)

Germany's invasion of Poland on Sep 1, 1939

(Acknowledgement)

Types of teas destroyed in the Boston Tea Party incident

(Acknowledgement)

Massacre of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics

He was a member of the Black September offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
(Acknowledgement)

Salvador Allende of Chile

He died in uncertain and controversial circumstances in the aftermath of a military coup and after refusing safe passage. For years, the Chilean left-wing maintained that Allende had been assassinated, considering that a suicide would weaken Allende's figure. In recent years the view that he committed suicide has become more broadly accepted, particularly as different testimonies appear to confirm details of the suicide reported in news and documentary interviews.
(Acknowledgement)

Dams

The squadron is commonly known as the "Dambusters", for its actions during Operation Chastise against German dams during the Second World War.
(Acknowledgement)

Haitian revolution

The text places the revolution in the context of the French Revolution, and focuses on the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who was born a slave but rose to prominence espousing the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality.
(Acknowledgement)

Bombing of Nagasaki

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 the 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.

George Gallup

(Acknowledgement)

Speechwriter

He helped draft the inaugural address in which Kennedy said famously, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
(Acknowledgement)

Anne Frank

Pfeffer was given the pseudonym Albert Dussel in Anne's diary.
(Acknowledgement)

Israel

Assassins

They were an order of Nizari Ismailis, particularly those of Persia and Syria that formed in the late 11th century. The name is often said to derive from the Arabic for "users of hashish."
(Acknowledgement)

Bismarck

He had just resigned as Chancellor at Wilhelm's demand, as their political views were too different for Wilhelm. The cartoon is well known in Germany and often used in history textbooks.
(Acknowledgement)

Oak tree

The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. According to tradition, Connecticut's Royal Charter of 1662 was hidden within the hollow of an oak tree to thwart its confiscation by the English governor-general.
(Acknowledgement)

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda

Kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2005 but has evaded capture.

1992 Presidential Elections

The term originated in the 1992 presidential candidacy of Bill Clinton.
(Acknowledgement)

Malcolm X

After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). The weekly meetings of the OAAU were held at the Audubon Ballroom and it was at one of those meetings, on February 21, 1965, that Malcolm X was assassinated.
(Acknowledgement)

Cuban Missile Crisis

Hugo Chávez

(Acknowledgement)

Church tower

On the night before D-Day (June 5-6, 1944), American soldiers of the 82nd Airborne parachuted into the area west of the village of Ste-Mère-Église in successive waves. Steele's parachute was caught in one of the back pinnacles of the church tower, causing the cables on his parachute to stretch to their full length, leaving him hanging and he hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead, before the Germans took him prisoner.
(Acknowledgement)

And babies

It shows the dead from the My Lai massacre.

Burning

The event undermined confidence in Charles' capacity to rule; Parisians considered it proof of courtly decadence and threatened to rebel against the more powerful members of the nobility.
(Acknowledgement)

Nelson Mandela

Ten leaders of the African National Congress were charged (and eight eventually convicted) on four broad charges. Among other consequences, the trial led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela.

Five Year Plans

In the view of most of Orwell's biographers, the main source for this was Assignment in Utopia by Eugene Lyons, an account of his time in the Soviet Union. This contains a chapter "Two Plus Two Equals Five", which was a slogan used by Stalin's government to predict that the Five year plan would be completed in four years, which for a time appeared widely in Moscow.
(Acknowledgement)

Nuremberg Trials

He was trained in law and was also a colonel with the U.S. Army General Staff Corps in 1945. In this capacity, he planned the legal framework and procedures for the Nuremberg War Crime Trials, basing the trials on the legal foundation of conspiracy and publicly trying the war crimes defendants through well established legal methods.
(Acknowledgement)

Constitution

The Twelve Tables came about as a result of the long social struggle between patricians and plebeians.

Red Lanterns

Mongol

He was the primary military strategist and general of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan.

Mexico

It was uttered from the small town of Dolores on September 16, 1810 by Father Hidalgo.

Ukraine

The scandal started on 28 November 2000, in Kiev, when Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz publicly accused President Kuchma of involvement in the abduction of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and numerous other crimes. Moroz named Kuchma's former bodyguard, Major Mykola Melnychenko, as the source. He also played selected recordings of the President's secret conversations for journalists, supposedly confirming Kuchma's order to kidnap Gongadze.
(Acknowledgement)

"Fifth column"

It has now come to mean a group of people who undermine a larger group, such as a nation or a besieged city, from within.

Death of Princess Diana

Caused by a Mercedes-Benz W140 running into a pillar.

Guernica in 1937

The bombing was the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso.

La Amistad

A 1997 film, Amistad, directed by Steven Spielberg, dramatized the historical incidents.

Suez Canal

It was as a result of the Six-Day War. Both sides of the canal had been blocked by ships scuttled by the Egyptians. After eight years, only two ships could leave by their own power.
(Acknowledgement)

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Several versions were listed by various authors in guidebooks popular among the ancient Hellenic tourists, particularly in the 1st and 2nd centuries BC.

Watergate

Five burglars were caught bugging the offices of the Democratic National Committee.

Young Turks

It was a secularist Turkish nationalist reform party in the early twentieth century, favoring reformation of the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire. The committee based on the ideas of the Young Turks ruled the Ottoman empire from 1908 until the end of World War I in November 1918.

5th of May

Origin of the Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for fifth of May) celebrations.

José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar

After the meeting, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. San Martín unexpectedly left the country and resigned the command of his army, excluding himself from politics and the military, and moved to France in 1824. The details of the 22 July meeting would be a subject of debate by later historians.

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources, particularly food and labor.

Willy Brandt

After laying down a wreath, Brandt knelt. In historical terms, Brandt gained much renown for this act, and it is thought to be one of the reasons he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. A monument to Willy Brandt was unveiled in 2000 in Willy Brandt Square in Warsaw on the eve of the 30th anniversary of his famous gesture.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

(Acknowledgement)

Soong sisters

Ai-ling was married to the richest man and finance minister of China, Chang-ling to Sun Yat-sen and May-ling to Chiang Kai-shek. Their marriages and alleged motivations have been summarized in the Maoist saying 'One loved money, one loved power, one loved her country.'

India

Richard the Lionheart

The Duke demanded a ransom of 150,000 marks, 2-3 times the annual revenue of England. Around one year later the ransom was paid. Equivalent to $3.3 billion today!
(Acknowledgement)

February 14 (Saint Valentine's Day Massacre)

St. Petersburg

The station is famously known for the arrival of Vladimir Lenin by train from Germany on 3 April 1917 to start the October Revolution.

Amphibious landings, most notably during the D-Day invasion

It was officially called 'Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP)' and was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes.
(Acknowledgement)

Julius Caeser

He divorced her saying, "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion" orginating the famous proverb about Caeser's wife.

Flemish

Forts

Between 1667 and 1707, he upgraded the fortifications of around 300 cities. In 2008, 12 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the western, northern and eastern borders of France that he designed were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

It established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. It was signed at the state dacha near Viskuli in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on December 8, 1991, by the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Birth of Adolf Hitler

(Acknowledgement)

Long March (China)

It has been portrayed as a glorious and heroic moment in Chinese Communist history, analogous to the U.S. Battle of the Alamo. The official account of the battle depicts exhausted and depleted Communist forces in a desperate situation, where they must fight across a bridge that is guarded by the numerically superior forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his warlord allies. However, there is evidence that differs from the official account of the battle. This suggests that much of the fighting was dramatized, by Communist leaders, for propaganda purposes.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The famous mark on his forehead.

Mount Vernon (George Washington)

Henry Kissinger

The coup was in Chile and it overthrew the government of Allende.

White Rose movement

It was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to dictator Adolf Hitler's regime.

'Camelot'

The usage of the term is attributed with having played a major role in establishing a trendy image of the Kennedy Administration and period in the popular mind.

Dunkirk

In nine days, 192,226 British and 139,000 French soldiers - 331,226 in all - were rescued by the 700 little ships and around 220 warships. The rescue operation turned a military disaster into a story of heroism which served to raise the morale of the British.

Czechoslovakia

The text of Charter 77 was prepared in 1976. It criticized the government for failing to implement human rights provisions of a number of documents it had signed. Several means of retaliation were used against the signatories by the government.

Robert Kennedy, who was the US Attorney General at that time

In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador, Robert Kennedy informally proposed that the Jupiter missiles in Turkey would be removed after the crisis subsides.

Tamil

He was the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. For over 25 years, the LTTE waged a violent secessionist campaign in Sri Lanka that led to it being designated a terrorist organization by 32 countries.

Battle of Midway (1942)

Only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."

Louisiana purchase (1803)

The city of Chicago, Illinois, had won the original bid to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis would not accept another international event in the same time frame. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, gave in and awarded the games to St. Louis.

Srebrenica massacre

Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864)

Hong Xiuquan maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with its capital at Nanjing. The Qing government crushed the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces.

Able Archer 83

The realistic nature of the 1983 exercise, coupled with deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some members of the Soviet Politburo and Soviet military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war, obscuring preparations for a genuine nuclear first strike.

Babylon

Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until, in the 6th century AD, it was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Francisco Pizarro to Atahualpa, after the Battle of Cajamarca

It sounded the death-knell of the Inca civilization.

German U-boats

The term was first used by Karl Dönitz, the German naval commander during WWII and has since become known in English as 'wolfpack' (Wolfsrudel), a more accurate metaphoric, but not literal, translation.

Enola Gay (weapon delivery)

Its call sign was Dimples 82.
(Acknowledgement)

Lockerbie in Scotland

Inquisitions, in particular the Spanish or the Portuguese

Both auto de fe in medieval Spanish and auto da fé in Portuguese mean "act of faith." It is usually represented as a heretic being burned at the stake, is a symbol used widely in the arts, especially in Europe.

White Ship

Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only surviving legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England.

Gallipoli campaign

In Turkey it is referred to as the Battle of Çanakkale, in particular the sea battle which took place on March 1915 where the Royal Navy was repulsed by Turkish forces. It is perceived as a defining moment in the history of the Turkish people - a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the aging Ottoman Empire was crumbling. The campaign was the first major battle undertaken by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and is often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in both of these countries.
(Acknowledgement)

Germany

It existed from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous operations, especially in late 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as 'German Autumn.'

Alexander the Great

When he died (June 10, 323 BC), he left behind a huge empire which was composed of many essentially independent territories. Alexander's empire stretched from his homeland of Macedon itself, along with the Greek city-states that his father had subdued, to Bactria and parts of India in the east. It included Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia. Without a chosen successor there was almost immediately a dispute among his generals as to who his successor should be.

India

The rebellion led to the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858 and India was thereafter directly governed by the crown as the new British Raj.

Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson

It's second sentence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language", containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history."

Ludwig II (Mad King Ludwig)

He commissioned the construction of several extravagant fantasy castles and palaces, the most famous being Neuschwanstein in Bavaria that also inspired Disney's castle.

Martin Luther

He set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.

Mig Alley

The North American F-86 Sabre and the Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 were the aircraft used throughout most of the conflict, with the area's nickname derived from the latter.

(First) Gulf War in 1991

The American-British armored forces routed the Iraqi Republican Guard.

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

It was dramatized in Henry V in which Henry inspires his much outnumbered English forces to fight the French saying "... We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; [...] ."

Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715), who is sometimes also called the Sun King

He holds the distinction of being the longest-reigning king in European history, reigning for seventy-two years and one hundred and ten days.

Armenian

It refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. The word 'genocide' was coined in order to describe these events. The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide.

Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII

It was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties. A study of Barbarossa allows an appreciation of the role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany; the operation resulted in 95% of all German casualties from 1941 to 1944 and 65% of all the allied military casualties accumulated throughout the war.

Africa, more precisely Eastern Africa

A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile sought to gain control of the Nile River and thereby force Britain out of Egypt. The British held firm as Britain and France were on the verge of war. It ended in a diplomatic victory for the British. It gave rise to the 'Fashoda syndrome' in French foreign policy, or seeking to assert French influence in areas which may be becoming susceptible to British influence.

Dreyfuss affair

French Revolution

It gave a huge psychological victory for the Revolution. After the battle, the newly-assembled National Convention was emboldened enough to formally declare the end of monarchy in France and the establishment of the First French Republic. In the varied historiography of the French Revolution, the battle of Valmy is often portrayed as the first victory of a citizen army, inspired by liberty and nationalism.

Japan

After WWII, Hirohito was forced to explicitly reject the claim that the Emperor of Japan was an incarnate divinity. Amaterasu is one of the principal Shinto deities.

Checkpoint Charlie (in Berlin)

It was designated as the single crossing point (by foot or by car) for foreigners and members of the Allied forces.

"dog-fight"

The term gained popularity during WWII, although its origin in air combat can be traced to the latter years of WWI. Until at least 1992, it has been a component in every major war despite beliefs after World War II that increasingly greater speeds and longer range weapons would make dog-fighting obsolete.

Aircraft carriers

It was also the first naval battle in history in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. Although a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, the battle would prove to be a strategic victory for the Allies.

Victims in the Whitechapel murders, attributed to Jack the Ripper

Welsh

He was last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales. He instigated an ultimately unsuccessful but long-running revolt against English rule of Wales. Glyndŵr has remained a notable figure in the popular culture of both Wales and England and was portrayed in Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1 as Owen Glendower. Also note, the modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry.

South Africa (as part of the system of apartheid)

The South African Parliament repealed the act in 1991.

Derry

Two investigations have been held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the immediate aftermath of the event, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame and was termed as a "whitewash." The Saville Inquiry was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the events. Following a twelve-year inquiry, Saville's report was made public in 2010. The report found that all of those shot were unarmed, and that the killings were both "unjustified and unjustifiable." On the publication of the Saville report the British prime minister, David Cameron, made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom.

Iran hostage crisis

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962

The US reached DEFCON 3 during the attacks of 9/11. The DEFCON level is controlled primarily by the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and each DEFCON level defines specific security, activation and response scenarios for the troops in question.

Emperor Nero (after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD)

It was built after the fire had cleared away the aristocratic dwellings on the slopes of the Esquiline Hill.

'Kim' Philby (1912-88)

In 1963, Philby was revealed to be a member of the spy ring now known as the Cambridge Five. He got his nickname from friends who connected his birthplace with the writings of Rudyard Kipling.

Che Guevara

This trip was of course made famous by The Motorcycle Diaries.

Congo (the Second Congo War)

It involved eight nations and twenty five armed groups.

Forty-seven ronin

It recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushidō. The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for two years and in turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder. The popularity of the story is still high today. With ten different television productions in the years 1997-2007 alone, it ranks among the most familiar of all stories in Japan.

George III

The longevity of her reign pushes George III, who was king from 1760 until 1820 during the period that the United States won independence from Britain, into third place. Elizabeth II will become the longest reigning monarch surpassing Queen Victoria in September 2015.

Charlemagne (c. 742-814)

Napoleon

(Second) Boer War (1899-1902)

It was fought between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Boer inhabitants of the two independent Boer republics: the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State. It ended with the annexation of the region under the British Empire, ultimately forming the Union of South Africa as part of the Commonwealth.

Greece, Egypt and Turkey

Great Pyramid of Giza - Egypt, Hanging Gardens of Babylon - Iraq, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus - Turkey, Statue of Zeus at Olympia - Greece, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - Turkey, Colossus of Rhodes - Greece and Lighthouse of Alexandria - Egypt.

Gladiators

Different gladiators specialized in different weapons, and it was usual to pair off combatants with widely different, but more or less equivalent, equipment.

Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005)

He was a Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter. Recent biographers have noted that Wiesenthal frequently lied about his own background and exploits, but have also credited Wiesenthal for pursuing justice for Holocaust victims, particularly at a time when the events of the Holocaust were downplayed.

Dolphin (this is the origin of the title of Dauphin)

Dauphin was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791, and from 1824 to 1830. The word is literally the French for dolphin, as a reference to the animal they bore on their flag.

Vietnam

They led the first resistance movement against the occupying Chinese after 247 years of domination. Many temples are dedicated to them, and a yearly holiday, occurring in February, to commemorate their deaths is observed by many Vietnamese.

Bolivia and Paraguay

Also note that these are the only two land-locked South American countries.

Mahatma Gandhi

Operation Condor

The program aimed to eradicate alleged socialist and communist influence and ideas and to control active or potential opposition movements against the participating governments. Due to its clandestine nature, the precise number of deaths directly attributable to Operation Condor is highly disputed.

Deng Xiaoping (1904-97)

As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy.

Ur in Mesopotamia

The site is marked by the ruins of the Great Ziggurat of Ur, excavated in the 1930s.

War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)

It was fought among several European powers, principally the Spanish loyal to Archduke Charles, the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal and the Duchy of Savoy against the Spanish loyal to Philip V, France and the Electorate of Bavaria over a possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. Such a unification would have drastically changed the European balance of power.

Nicaragua

Katyn

Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. The revelation led to the end of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London-based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990, when it officially acknowledged and condemned the perpetration of the killings as well as the subsequent cover-up.

Aldo Moro

Vidkun Quisling

He was a Norwegian army officer and politician, who served as President of occupied Norway during WWII. Today in Norway and other parts of the world, "quisling" is a synonym for "traitor."

"Mohammed Ali Jinnah" (Pakistan)

Apart from cultural legacies, it seems that Mohammad Ali Jinnah left a legacy as one of the most controversially portrayed figures in contemporary Asian history.

Elizabeth I

It led to the execution of Mary I, Queen of Scots. This was a second major plot against Elizabeth I of England after the Ridolfi plot. It was named after the chief conspirator Sir Anthony Babington (1561-1586), a young Catholic nobleman.

Stalingrad

The battle involved more participants than any other on the Eastern Front, and was marked by its brutality and disregard for military and civilian casualties. It was amongst the bloodiest in the history of warfare, with the upper estimates of combined casualties coming to nearly two million.

Hitler

Thailand

Albania

Skanderbeg's main legacy was the inspiration he gave to all of those who saw in him a symbol of the struggle of Christendom against the Ottoman Empire.

Herbert Hoover

All these were Republican candidates who lost the elections to FDR.

"Tear down this wall"

Reagan challenged Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear down the Berlin wall.

Zealotry

Chariots

The battle was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000-6,000 chariots.

Boers

It was an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s. The Great Trek itself led to the founding of numerous Boer republics, the Natalia Republic, the Orange Free State Republic and the Transvaal being the most notable.

Balfour Day

After Arthur Balfour, the Foreign Secretary who authored the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

East Germany's Stasi

It was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world.

Chad

In 1994, the International Court of Justice decision granted Chad sovereignty over the Aouzou strip, and ended the Libyan occupation.

El Cid (1040-1099)

He was a Castilian nobleman, a military leader and diplomat who conquered and governed the city of Valencia.

Richard III

He was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses and is sometimes regarded as the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the central character of a well-known play by William Shakespeare.

Bob Dole

He was the republican party's nominee for president in 1996 (defeated by Clinton) and was the running mate of Gerald Ford in 1976 (defeated by Carter/Mondale).

International Brigades

An estimated 32,000 people from a "claimed 53 nations" volunteered. They fought against rebel Spanish Nationalist forces, who were led by General Francisco Franco and assisted by German and Italian forces.

Invasion of Hawaii

On January 17, 1893, the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, Queen Lili'uokalani, was deposed in a coup d'état led largely by American citizens who were opposed to Lili'uokalani's attempt to establish a new Constitution. The success of the coup efforts was supported by the landing of U.S. Marines, who came ashore at the request of the conspirators. The coup left the queen imprisoned at Iolani Palace under house arrest. The sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii was lost to a Provisional Government led by the conspirators, later briefly becoming the Republic of Hawaii, before eventual annexation to the United States in 1898.

Frederick I Barbarossa (1122-1190)

He was elected King of Germany in 1152 and was made a Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian in 1155. The name Barbarossa came from the northern Italian cities he attempted to rule, and means "red beard" in Italian. According to the legend, his red beard has grown through the table at which he sits. His eyes are half closed in sleep, but now and then he raises his hand and sends a boy out to see if the ravens have stopped flying.

USA and Germany

The untested and poorly-led American troops suffered heavy casualties and were pushed back over fifty miles (80 km) in a rout. In the aftermath, the U.S. Army instituted sweeping changes from unit-level organization to the replacing of commanders. When they next met, in some cases only weeks later, the U.S. forces were considerably more effective.

Cuba

Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. expansionists, particularly as the U.S. set its sights southward following the admission of California to the Union. However, diplomatically the country had been content to see the island remain in Spanish hands so long as it did not pass to a stronger power such as the United Kingdom or France. A product of the debates over slavery in the United States, Manifest Destiny, and the Monroe Doctrine, the Ostend Manifesto proposed a shift in foreign policy, justifying the use of force to seize Cuba in the name of national security. While the Ostend Manifesto was never acted upon, American interest in the region would next surface near the end of the nineteenth century in the Spanish-American War, ultimately leading to Cuba's independence.

Khyber Pass

It links Pakistan and Afghanistan. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. In some versions of the Aryan migration theory, the Indo-Aryans migrated to India via the Khyber Pass. Recorded invasions through the Khyber begin with the conquests of Darius I and Alexander the Great and also include later Muslim invasions of South Asia, culminating with the establishment of the Mughul Empire from 1526. The British invaded Afghanistan from India and fought three Afghan Wars in 1839-42, 1878-80, and 1919. George Molesworth, a member of the British force of 1919, summarised: "Every stone in the Khyber has been soaked in blood."

PT-109, commanded by JFK

Kennedy's actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of the PT-109 made him a war hero, which proved helpful in his political career.

Amistad case

He was portrayed by actor Djimon Hounsou in the 1997 film Amistad.

Battle of Singapore

It was fought in the South-East Asian theater of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East." The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8 December 1941 to 15 February 1942. It resulted in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, and the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.

Carbonari

Their goals were patriotic and liberal and they played an important role in the early years of Italian nationalism.

Martha, who later became the wife of George Washington

Mamluk dynasty

In 1291 they drove the last Crusaders from Palestine. Their reign is divided into a "Bahri" period from 1250-1382 and a "Circassian" period from 1382-1517. They were defeated by the Ottomans, who conquered Egypt in 1517.

Greece

It was fought in Navarino Bay, on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea.

Alaska

On March 30, 1867, the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars, about two cents an acre; "Seward's Folly" many called it, after Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Finlandization

It is generally considered to be pejorative, originating in West German political debate of the late 1960s and 1970s. As the term was used in Germany and other NATO countries, it meant the process of turning into a country which, although maintaining national sovereignty, in foreign politics resolves not to challenge a more powerful neighbour. Commonly in reference to Finland's policies vis-à-vis the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but could refer to similar international relations, such as Denmark's attitude toward Germany between 1871 and 1940.

Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk was the first battle in which a German Blitzkrieg offensive had been defeated before it could break through enemy defenses and into its strategic depths.

Ypres

Ypres occupied a strategic position during World War I because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north (the Schlieffen Plan). Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (21 July to 6 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele) in which the British, Canadians, ANZAC and French forces recaptured the Passchendaele ridge east of the city at a terrible cost of lives.

Rob Roy

A fictionalized account of his life appeared in 1723 called The Highland Rogue, making Rob Roy a legend in his own lifetime, and influencing George I to issue a pardon for his crimes just as he was about to be transported to the colonies. The publication of Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott in 1817, further added to his fame and fleshed out his biography.

Middle Passage

Ships departed Europe for African markets with commercial goods, which were in turn traded for kidnapped Africans who were transported across the Atlantic as slaves; the enslaved Africans were then sold or traded as commodities for raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the "triangular trade." The term "Middle Passage" thus refers to that branch of the transatlantic trade in which millions of Africans were imprisoned, enslaved, and removed from their homelands.

Marianne

The origins of Marianne, depicted by artist Honoré Daumier, in 1848, as a mother nursing two children, Romulus and Remus, or by sculptor François Rude, during the July Monarchy, as an angry warrior voicing the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe, are uncertain. She represents France as a state, and its values (as opposed to the "Gallic rooster" representing France as a nation and its history, land and culture). Her profile stands out on the official seal of the country, is engraved on French euro coins and appears on French postage stamps; it also was featured on the former franc currency.

Runnymede

It is the most likely location at which, in 1215, King John sealed the Magna Carta, and the charter itself indicates Runnymede by name.

1960

Fourteen nations in West and Equatorial Africa gained their independence from France during this year; Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Madagascar, Togo, and the Cameroon. Somalia and Nigeria were also granted independence in 1960 from the United Kingdom and the Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) became independent from Belgium during this year.

Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (1892-1975)

At the League of Nations in 1936, the Emperor's protest of the use of chemical weapons against his people foreshadowed not only the worldwide conflict that was to come, but also the advent of the technological "refinement of barbarism" that would come to mark modern warfare. Selassie was a gifted speaker, and some of his speeches have been counted among the most memorable of the twentieth century. His internationalist views led to Ethiopia's becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring.

Mitrokhin Archive

It refers to the collected notes taken by Vasili Mitrokhin over 30 years. Mitrokhin was a Major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate of the KGB. "The Mitrokhin Archive" claims to represent a major body of historical evidence regarding Soviet operations and personnel assets during the Cold War.

Domino theory

The domino effect suggests that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end. The domino theory was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify American intervention around the world.

Sweden

However it should be noted that the neutrality of some countries now in the European Union (which includes Sweden) is under dispute, especially as the EU now operates a common foreign policy. A neutral country takes no side in a war between other parties, and in return hopes to avoid being attacked by any of them.

Banana republic

"Republic" in his time was often a euphemism for a dictatorship, while "banana" implied an easy reliance on basic agriculture and backwardness in the development of modern industrial technology.

King Pyrrhus of Epirus

A narrow Greek victory, it is this battle which gave rise to the term "Pyrrhic victory," meaning a victory at so high a cost as to be worthless. Pyrrhus is later reported to have said, "One more such victory, and we shall be undone."

French Foreign Legion

The purpose of the Legion was to remove disruptive elements from society and put them to use fighting the enemies of France. The Legion was primarily used to protect and expand the French colonial empire during the 19th century, but it also fought in all French wars including the Franco-Prussian War and both World Wars.

League of Nations (1919-1946)

The outbreak of World War II was the immediate cause of the League's demise, but there was also a variety of other, more fundamental, flaws. The League, like the modern United Nations, lacked an armed force of its own and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, which they were very reluctant to do. Economic sanctions, which were the most severe measure the League could implement short of military action, were difficult to enforce and had no great impact on the target country, because they could simply trade with those outside the League.
(Acknowledgement)

Ottomon empire

During his tenure during 50 years of the post of imperial architect, Sinan is said to have constructed or supervised 476 buildings (196 of which still survive), according to the official list of his works, the Tazkirat-al-Abniya.

Distances (by counting their steps)

Their measurements of the distances traveled by Alexander's army show a high degree of precision to the point that it had been suggested that they must have used an odometer, although there is no direct mentioning of such a device.
(Acknowledgement)

Chiang Kai-shek

Abbreviated as KMT, it is a political party in the Republic of China (ROC), located in Taiwan. It originated in China in 1912, founded by Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen shortly after the Xinhai Revolution. Later led by Chiang Kai-shek, it ruled much of China from 1928 until its retreat to Taiwan in 1949 after defeat by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Civil War. There, the KMT controlled the government under a single party state until reforms in the late 1970s through the 1990s loosened its grip on power.
(Acknowledgement)

Jewish passengers

The German Propaganda Ministry and the Nazi party conceived of a propaganda exercise which would demonstrate that Germany was not alone in its territorial, exclusionary hostility to Jews as a permanent minority within the political economy of their state. The passengers disembarked at various locations and the ship without the passengers eventually sailed back to Hamburg, Germany. This incident was dramatised in the 1976 motion picture Voyage of the Damned.
(Acknowledgement)

Manzanar

Since the last prisoners left in 1945, former prisoners and others have worked to protect Manzanar and to establish it as a National Historic Site that preserves and interprets the site for current and future generations.

Canada

It was fought on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec City. The battle involved fewer than 10,000 troops between both sides, but proved to be a deciding moment in the conflict between France and Britain over the fate of New France, influencing the later creation of Canada. In the wake of the battle, France's remaining military force in Canada and the rest of North America came under increasing pressure from British forces. Within four years, nearly all of France's possessions in eastern North America would be ceded to Great Britain.

300

Fake settlements

Conventional wisdom has it that Potemkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress's eyes. Modern historians consider this scenario of self-serving deception to be, at best, an exaggeration, and quite possibly simply malicious rumors spread by Potemkin's opponents. So, while "Potemkin village" has come to mean, especially in a political context, any hollow or false construct, physical or figurative, meant to hide an undesirable or potentially damaging situation, in fact there appears to have been no such thing.

Unit 731

Headed by Shiro Ishii, it was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes ever carried out. In some of the 'experiments', prisoners of war were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia.

Indira Gandhi

At the time of the assassination Ustinov was on an overseas phone call with his theatrical producer (and later manager) Douglas Urbanski, who heard all of the commotion in the background.

Vestal virgins

They were the virgin holy priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. For centuries there was an eternal flame which burned within the Temple of Vesta on the Roman Forum. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Romans believed that the fire was closely tied to the fortunes of the city and viewed its extinction as a portent of disaster.

Māori

The treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Mâori rights to their land and gave Mâori the rights of British citizens. There are significant differences between the Mâori and English language versions of the treaty, and virtually since 1840 this has led to debate over exactly what was agreed to at Waitangi. Mâori have generally seen the Treaty as a sacred pact, while for many years Pâkehâ (white New Zealanders) ignored it.

Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)

It lasted 116 years and was fought primarily over claims by the English kings to the French throne and was punctuated by several brief and two lengthy periods of peace before it finally ended in the expulsion of the English from France, with the exception of the Calais Pale. The term "Hundred Years' War" was a later historical term invented by historians to describe the series of events.

Yasser Arafat

Adolf Eichmann

In Nazi Germany, he had the task of facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. After the war he travelled to Argentina using a fraudulently obtained laissez-passer issued by the International Red Cross and lived there under a false identity. He was captured by Israeli Mossad agents in Argentina and tried in Israeli court on fifteen criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was convicted and hanged.

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.

Pindar (c.522 BC - 443 BC)

William Joseph Donovan (1883-1959)

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

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.

"Great game"

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.

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.

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.

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.

Alexander the Great

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.

Clash of Civilizations

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Huntington is increasingly regarded as having been prescient as the United States invasion of Afghanistan, 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the 2005 cartoon crisis, the ongoing Iranian nuclear crisis, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict and the Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy fueled the perception that Huntington's Clash is well underway. The Clash of Civilizations thesis may also be regarded as an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The ideas of Huntington and Bernard Lewis were already influential among American neoconservative figures such as Vice President Richard Cheney prior to September 11, 2001; Middle East scholar Gilles Kepel (2003) reports that many radical Islamists in the Middle East likewise viewed Huntington's thesis approvingly. Therefore, the fact that U.S. policymakers and radical Islamists have confronted each other in a certain way may be an indication that people on both sides were interpreting events according to the thesis, rather than that the thesis itself was especially prescient.

Solidarity

Solidarity was the first non-communist party controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of political repression, but in the end it was forced to start negotiating with the union.

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.

"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).

"Iron Curtain"

Although not well received at the time, the phrase gained popularity as a short-hand reference to the division of Europe as the Cold War strengthened.

Toledo

"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.

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.

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

Socrates

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

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.

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and FDR

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."

He banned the Olympic games

Call for the resignation of Nixon

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.

Robben Island

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

Six-Day War (1967)

He was an Israeli spy who made critical friendships with high-ranking Syrian generals while undercover. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Ghana

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

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.

Death by 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 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.

Crimean War (1854-56)

It was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. It is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars.

Swastika (from svasti)

The use of the swastika was associated by Nazi theorists with their conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German people. Following the Nordicist version of the Aryan invasion theory, the Nazis claimed that the early Aryans of India, from whose Vedic tradition the swastika sprang, were the prototypical white invaders.

Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire of 1871-1918

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.

Zulu (The Anglo-Zulu War)

The events surrounding the assault on Rorke's Drift were first dramatized 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.