World History

A circa 1925 woodcut by Unpo Takashima depicts Tokyo's Ueno district ablaze. "Each new gust of wind," reported Joseph Dahlmann, a Jesuit priest who witnessed the calamity from a hilltop, "gave new impulse to the fury of the conflagration."

The Great Japan Earthquake of 1923

The powerful quake and ensuing tsunami that struck Yokohama and Tokyo traumatized a nation and unleashed historic consequences

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May 2011 Anniversaries

May 2011 Anniversaries

Yuri Gagarin

April 2011 Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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March Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Ludd, drawn here in 1812, was the fictitious leader of numerous real protests.

What the Luddites Really Fought Against

The label now has many meanings, but when the group protested 200 years ago, technology wasn't really the enemy

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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November Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

Zygmunt Aksienow rescued a caged canary as a "sign of the normal life I was used to."

Capturing Warsaw at the Dawn of World War II

As German bombs began falling on Poland in 1939, an American photographer made a fateful decision

Producer Lee Mendelson directs children who are recording the dialogue for the animated TV special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

British archaeologists looking for evidence of prehistoric activity in the English county of Dorset discovered instead a mass grave holding 54 male skeletons.

A Viking Mystery

Beneath Oxford University, archaeologists have uncovered a medieval city that altered the course of English history

Invented in the late 19th century as a means to contain cattle in the American West, barbed wire soon found military applications.

Ten Inventions That Inadvertently Transformed Warfare

Some of the most pivotal battlefield innovations throughout history began as peacetime inventions

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This Month in History

Momentous or Merely Memorable

In Japan, violence has faded as its population has aged.

The Age of Peace

Maturing populations may mean a less violent future for many societies torn by internal conflict

The United States, not China, will dominate world affairs, George Friedman believes.

George Friedman on World War III

The geopolitical scientist predicts which nations will be fighting for world power in 2050

The Obamas worship at African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.

Anticipation

We salute the basic human urge to remember the future

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Ten Infamous Islands of Exile

Established to banish dissidents and criminals, these islands are known for their one-time prisoners, from Napoleon to Nelson Mandela

Dame Margot Fonteyn's role in a plot to overthrow the pro-U.S. government of Panama in 1959 was all but forgotten until now.

The Great Ballerina Was Not the Greatest Revolutionary

A 1959 failed coup of the Panamanian government had a shocking participant – the world-famous dancer Dame Margot Fonteyn

Two centuries after Shakespeare's death, a lowly law clerk named William Henry Ireland forged the Bard's signature and a seal that convinced skeptics.

To Be...Or Not: The Greatest Shakespeare Forgery

William-Henry Ireland committed a scheme so grand that he fooled even himself into believing he was William Shakespeare's true literary heir

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