“Uncle Sam” is the most common national personification of the U.S. government (his initials U.S. are the same as the abbreviation for the country's name), typically shown as an elderly man wearing a white top hat with white stars on a blue band, a b...
There are records stating that he was born in Párdány in Banat District, which corresponds with today’s village Međa situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Famous competitive swimming record holder and actor Johnny Weissmuller probably rem...
At the inauguration, Kennedy gave a well-known speech, of which the most famous line probably is: “(…) ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” On this day in 1961, the President of the United States of Americ...
His Capetian – Bourbon dynasty is probably the most famous European ruling dynasty (next to the House of Habsburg), because it was on different thrones during for over 1,000 years, and it still rules today in two European countries – Spain and Luxemb...
At the Wannsee conference, SS General Reinhard Heydrich presented a plan according to which the European Jews were to be used as a work force for building roads. Those who did not die during construction were to be liquidated afterwards. On this day,...
Since 1937, the U.S. presidential inauguration has always taken place on this day. Only if this day is Sunday is the inauguration postponed for the next day (January 21). The inauguration of the President of the United States takes place on this day...
Even before he became king of France, the young Francis II was married to Mary, Queen of Scots. With this wedding he became King consort of Scotland, and soon after he became King of France too. On this day in 1544 the King of France Francis II of th...
Empress Carlota of Mexico or “Emperatriz Carlota” how the Mexicans call her, had an unfortunate destiny because her husband (Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico) was executed. The last empress of Mexico died on this day in 1927. Her name was Carlota, Char...
Poe married in secret his close cousin – Virginia Clemm – who was only 13 (half his age). Unfortunately, she died young at only 24 of tuberculosis. There is a theory that Poe’s dark and melancholic poems (The Raven, Annabel Lee) originated from his e...
Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands on this day. Interestingly, he originally named them the “Sandwich Islands” – in honor of Cook’s sponsor at the time – the Earl of Sandwich (after whom the sandwich was also named). On this day in 17...
During the time of Minister Louvois, the French Army increased to incredible 400,000 soldiers, which had not been seen in Europe since the age of Roman Empire (around 1,200 years earlier). On this day the French Minister and Statesmen Marquis de Louv...
The Pope visited Mehmet Ali Ağca in prison and forgave him. Apparently, they eventually developed a friendly relationship. On the Pope’s encouragement, the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pardoned Ağca in 2000. Turkish citizen Mehmet Ali Agca...
The famous VW Beetle was made at the incentive of Adolf Hitler who, in his speech in 1933, promised that soon every average working family would be able to afford a car. Hitler liked Porsche’s design of the Beetle and the car went into production in...
After World War II the Americans first recruited Klaus Barbie into the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps, and later he immigrated to Argentina, and then Bolivia where he, supposedly, even participated in the action of capturing and liquidating Che...
In orbit near Earth, Tombaugh was looking for natural satellites that could house space stations. Today, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh has died, famous for discovering Pluto, which was then considered the 9th planet in the solar system. Tombaugh...
On this day in 1685, the Armenian merchant Johannes Diodato was granted the privilege to sell coffee in Vienna, leading to the first legally sanctioned serving of coffee in that city. Over the following centuries, Vienna's coffee shops gained so much...
He became the boss of one of Chicago's largest mafia families at just 26. The famous American gangster Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899. His birth name was Alphonse Gabriel Capone, and he came from a family who immigrated to the United States f...
Christopher Columbus's set off on his fourth and final voyage to America from Cadiz in 1502. Long sea voyages were at that time still highly dangerous undertakings, and Columbus lost two of his four ships during that expedition, while his other two s...
Even the king’s close cousin, the Duke of Orleans, was among those who voted for the king’s death. Others who voted for his death included Robespierre, Marat, Danton, and the famous painter Jacques-Louis David. On this day the French revolutionary po...
Four 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs (each five times the strength of the ones dropped on Hiroshima) fell out of an American B-52 “Stratofortress” bomber and hit the ground near the town of Palomares in southern Spain. One of the most dangerous nuclear inc...
When he was 22 years old, Cassius Clay reveled to the reporters that he is a member of Nation of Islam movement. Precisely then he changed his name to Muhammad Ali, although not all the media initially accepted the new name. Boxer Muhammad Ali was bo...
A place called Sydney – after Lord Sydney, British Home Secretary at the time (i.e. the man within the government in charge for policing and penal system) was selected as the location of a penal colony. The first ship in the fleet of European settler...
The founding of the German Empire was proclaimed precisely on this day in 1871. Wilhelm I of the House of Hohenzollern declared himself the first German Emperor. It is interesting that this happened in the famous French Palace of Versailles. The Germ...
In order to get a better picture of the time he lived in, let us mention that the people of Massachusetts were at that time still at war with the local Native American tribes. Benjamin Franklin, one of the most prominent people responsible for the cr...
A total of seven Popes resided in Avignon during 79 years. It was the so-called Avignon Papacy of the Catholic Church. Only Pope Gregory IX on this day managed to return in Rome. On this day Pope Gregory XI returned from Avignon to Rome thus ending t...
In protest against Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, student Jan Palach burned himself in Prague on January 16, 1969. Namely, eleven days earlier the forces of the Communist Warsaw Pact, led by the USSR, stifled the so-called. Prague Spring, or...
The brutal repression of the military regime in El Salvador has forced opposition to armed resistance. Between 1980 and 1991, 70,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the civil war. More than a million people fled the country. Guerrilla groups...
Philip II. The Habsburgs, one of the most powerful kings to ever rule, was crowned King of Spain on January 16, 1556. Philip was crowned after the abdication of his even more powerful father, Emperor Charles V. (the imperial title was attributed to K...
Fuad II. was banished from Egypt as a 17-month-old baby. On this day, the last king in Egypt's history was born. His name was Fuad II. and it was the end of a monarchical tradition in Egypt that lasted almost 5000 years. Namely, the famous early rule...
Today, in 1605, the first edition of the famous novel Don Quixote by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid. The full title of the piece was El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (Bistri knight Don Quixote de Manche), and t...
