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Ancient Egyptian Culture
Ancient Egyptian culture flourished between c. 6000 BCE with the rise of technology (as evidenced in the glasswork of faience) and 30 BCE with the death...
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Map of 12th-Century Crusader States (Outremer)
This map illustrates the Crusader States, or Outremer (from the Old French outre-mer, meaning "overseas"), in the 12th century, established following...
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Article
Interview: Her Lotus Year. Wallis Simpson in China
Wallis Simpson (1896-1986) is often remembered as the wife of King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor. British monarch for less than a year in 1936, Edward...
Definition
Henry Clay - The Great Compromiser
Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American lawyer and statesman, one of the defining political figures of his age. Over the course of his several decades...
Article
The Murder of the Romanov Family
The brutal murder of the entire Romanov family was the culmination of deep discontent across the Russian Empire with the persistently autocratic rule...
Definition
Dred Scott Decision - Worst Supreme Court Ruling in US History
The Dred Scott Decision (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857) was the infamous ruling of the United States Supreme Court that, according...
Collection
12 Famous Ships in History
In this collection, we look at 12 of the most famous ships that have ever sailed the high seas. From antiquity to the 20th century, these ships were...
Definition
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - Northern Resistance and Tubman's Rescue of Charles Nalle
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (1850-1864) was part of the Compromise of 1850, drafted to diffuse tensions between Southern 'slave states' and Northern...
Article
Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language and Unknown Letters
Sometime in 1153 or 1154, the German nun Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) wrote a letter to the elderly Pope Anastasius IV (1073-1154). Her words were...
Definition
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed by the US Congress in September 1850 to diffuse a sectional crisis brewing between the 'free...
Article
Harriet Tubman's Escape from Slavery - Bound for the Promised Land
When Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery, she later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing...
Article
The Stolypin Reforms - Tsar Nicholas II's Attempt to Stave off Revolution
Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911) was a Russian politician who served as prime minister to Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1894-1917). Stolypin ruthlessly quashed...
Definition
Harriet Tubman - Visionary American Hero
Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913) was a former slave, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She served...
Definition
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an effort by the US Congress to resolve a sectional dispute between the 'free states' of the North and the 'slave...
Definition
RMS Lusitania - Tragic Victim of WWI
RMS Lusitania was a British transatlantic liner infamously sunk by a German U-boat on 7 May 1915 during the First World War (1914-18). Struck off the...
Definition
Albert Sidney Johnston - The Highest-Ranking General Killed in the US Civil War
Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862) was the commander of the Confederate western armies in the early months of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Over...
Definition
J. E. B. Stuart - The Cavalier of the Confederacy
James Ewell Brown Stuart (1833-1864), better known by his initials as J. E. B. Stuart, was a Confederate cavalry general during the American Civil War...
Article
Emperor Titus' Sole Mistake - A Mysterious Deathbed Confession
A little over two years into his imperial administration, the Roman emperor Titus (r. 79-81 CE) and a retinue of followers traveled to the Sabine countryside...
