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).

The 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.

Gabon

After Cuban President Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, Bongo became the world's longest-serving non-monarch ruler. An ardent Francophile, Bongo was largely praised by French officials as a friend of France and Françafrique, but was criticized for in effect having worked for France, himself, his family and local elites and not for Gabon and its people.

The 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.

Mobutu

According to the documentary When We Were Kings, promoter Don King promised both fighters $5,000,000 USD for the fight, and no other group would put up that kind of money for the fight. Mobutu, wanting to expand the image of the nation of Zaire, put up the nation's money to do so. According to a quote in the film, Ali supposedly said: "Some countries go to war to get their names out there, and wars cost a lot more than $10,000,000."

The Battle of Kasserine Pass

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.

Zhou Enlai

He had planned to fly from Beijing to Hong Kong and then on to Jakarta on Kashmir Princess. An emergency appendectomy delayed his arrival in Hong Kong; he left China three days after the crash and flew to Rangoon to meet with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Burmese Prime Minister U Nu. Some historians have argued that Zhou may have known about the assassination plot beforehand and that the premier did not undergo an appendectomy at the time.

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.

The 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."

Iran's

They are also known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Since its origin as an ideologically driven militia, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution has taken an ever more assertive role in virtually every aspect of Iranian society. Its expanded social, political, military, and economic role under president Ahmadinejad's administration — especially during the 2009 presidential election and post-election suppression of protest — has led many analysts to argue that its political power has surpassed even that of the Shiite clerical system.

Zimmermann Telegram

The telegram was sent to the German ambassador in Washington, Johann von Bernstorff, at the height of World War I. Bernstorff, per Zimmermann's request, forwarded the Telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. Zimmermann sent the Telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by the German Empire, an act which the German chancellor feared would draw the neutral United States into war on the side of the Allies. The Telegram instructed Ambassador Eckardt that if the United States appeared likely to enter the war he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance. He was to offer Mexico material aid in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase, specifically the American states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

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.

The White Rose movement

The six core members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo and they were executed by decapitation in 1943. The text of their sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to the United Kingdom, and in July 1943 copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

The Amistad case

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

The Battle of Singapore

It was fought in the South-East Asian theatre 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.

The Carbonari

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

A warship

The ship foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. Vasa fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. She was located again in the late 1950s, in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor.

Martha, who later became the wife of George Washington

The Mamluks

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.

Battle of Navarino

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

Baden-Powell

It took place at the town of Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting Movement, into a national hero. The lifting of the Siege of Mafeking was a decisive victory for the British and a crushing defeat for the Boers. Because of this it is often known as the Relief of Mafeking.

The Chicago Seven

They were charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Bobby Seale, the eighth man charged, had his trial severed during the proceedings, lowering the number from eight to seven.

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.

The 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[2] 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.

Destruction of German infrastructure

It was officially titled Demolitions on Reich Territory and has subsequently become known as the Nero Decree. The decree was in vain. The man most responsible for carrying it out was Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production. Appalled at the order, Speer deliberately failed to carry it out, shrewdly persuading Hitler that his planned - albeit imaginary - recovery of the lost territory could be done without the destruction of its assets. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, 32 days after issuing the order.

Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation

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.

The 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.

Tempelhof

On 20 June 1948 Soviet authorities, claiming technical difficulties, halted all traffic by land and by water into or out of the western-controlled section of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into the city were three 25-mile-wide air corridors across the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. Faced with the choice of abandoning the city or attempting to supply its inhabitants with the necessities of life by air, the Western Powers chose the latter course and for the next eleven months sustained the city's two-and-a-half million residents.

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."

The Spanish Armada

The aim of the expedition was to invade and conquer England, thereby suppressing support for the United Provinces — that part of the Spanish Netherlands in possession of the Dutch rebels — and cutting off attacks by the English against Spanish possessions in the New World and against the Atlantic treasure fleets. The expedition was the largest engagement of the undeclared Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604).

The 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.

The 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. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_nations)

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.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bematist)

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.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang)

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'.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_St_Louis)

Ukraine

The term Holodomor is applied only to the famine that took place in the territories of the Ukrainian SSR during the wider famine that affected other regions of the USSR. Most modern historians state that the famine was caused by the sudden radical economic changes brought on by Stalinist policies that were implemented by the government of the Soviet Union. A few argue that natural causes may have been the primary reason for the disaster. As of December 1, 2007, the parliament of Ukraine and the governments of 26 countries have acknowledged the Holodomor as an act of genocide.

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.

Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC)

He was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is believed to have taken the throne in his early 20s and to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC[6] for a total of 66 years and 2 months and was also responsible for many magnificent constructions, including the temple at Abu Simbel.

Tupac Amaru (d. 1572)

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

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.

Ephialtes of Trachis

JFK

The book examines the failures of the British government to take steps to prevent World War II and is notable for its uncommon stance of not castigating the appeasement policy of the British government at the time, instead suggesting that an earlier confrontation between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany could well have been more disastrous in the long run.

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.

The 1066 Norman invasion

The main character of the tapestry is William the Conqueror. While political propaganda or personal emphasis may have somewhat distorted the historical accuracy of the story, the Bayeux tapestry presents a unique visual document of medieval arms, apparel, and other objects unlike any other artifact surviving from this period.

France

It was proclaimed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, following the military defeat of France by Nazi Germany during World War II. Vichy France had legal authority in both the northern zone of France, which was occupied by the German Wehrmacht, and the unoccupied southern "free zone", where the regime's administrative center of Vichy was located. The southern zone remained under Vichy control until the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942.

The 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.

New Zealand

It is held to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840. 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.

The 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.

Persepolis

It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city, built during the first half of the 5th century BC as part of the original design by Darius the Great, its construction completed by Xerxes I. The Apadana covered an area of 112,000 square meters, its roof supported by 72 columns, each standing 20m tall. The entire hall was destroyed in 331 BC by the army of Alexander the Great, leaving only a single column standing. The stone of the columns was used as building material for nearby settlements, but after reconstruction work in the 20th century, 14 are again erect.

Puerto Rico

Since the Grito galvanized a burgeoning nationalist movement among Puerto Ricans, Betances is also considered "El Padre de la Patria" (Father of the Puerto Rican Nation). Because of his many donations and help to people in need, he also became known as "The Father of the Poor".

Cyrus the Great (c.590 BC or 576 — August 530 BC)

As leader of the Persian people in Anshan, he conquered the Medes and unified the two separate Iranian kingdoms; as the king of Persia, he reigned over the new empire from 559 BC until his death. The empire expanded under his rule, eventually conquering most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, from Egypt and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, to create the largest state the world had yet seen. Beyond his nation, Cyrus left a lasting legacy on religion, politics, and military strategy, as well as on both Eastern and Western civilization.

Yasser Arafat

Pericles

Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles promoted the arts and literature; this was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world.

Sargon of Akkad

Sargon's vast empire is known to have extended from Elam to the Mediterranean sea, including Mesopotamia, parts of modern-day Iran and Syria, and possibly parts of Anatolia and the Arabian peninsula. He ruled from a new capital, Akkad (Agade), which the Sumerian king list claims he built, on the left bank of the Euphrates.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anne Frank

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.

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.

El Cid (1044-1099)

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

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.

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.

Pindar (c.522BC - 443BC)

The 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The 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.

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.

The Spanish Inquisition

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.

January 1, 1992

The 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.

Richard Nixon (1913-1994)

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

The birth of 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.

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.

The Regency era

It ended in 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father. The term Regency era sometimes refers to a more extended time frame than the decade of the formal Regency.

Alfred the Great (c. 849–899)

Although not English, Canute the Great was another King of England given this title by the Danes.

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.

Iraq

Even though Iraq was ruled by another branch of the Baath Party, Assad's relations with Saddam Hussein were extremely strained. But with the exception of a few border guard skirmishes and mutual support for cross-border raids by opposition groups, no heavy fighting broke out until 1991, when Syria joined the US-led UN coalition to expel Iraq from Kuwait.

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.

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.

Bulgaria

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.

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.

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.

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.

Liberty Leading the People

A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the tricolore flag of the French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other.

Toledo

The Baths of Caracalla

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.

"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.

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.

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D Roosevelt

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".

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.

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).

He banned the Olympic games

Did you say Gladiatorial combats?

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Rum Rebellion (in 1808)

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.

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.

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.

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.

'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.

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 Appian Way

The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars.

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 roamed 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.

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.

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.

William Tell (The word 'Canton' should have pointed you towards Switzerland)

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

Aribert Heim

Like Mengele, he is known for his gruesome experiments on living people.

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.

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 Swastika (from Sanskrit '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.

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

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.

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.

Slaves

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

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'.

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.

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.

George Gallup's (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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.