Ancien Regime: Did you mean...?

The Coup of 18 Brumaire (9-10 November 1799) was a bloodless coup d'état in France that overthrew the government of the French Directory and replaced it with the French Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power and, in the view...

The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend or HJ), named after the leader of the German Nazi Party Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), was designed to indoctrinate 14-18 year-old boys into the party's way of thinking. Its activities promoted physical exercise...

The Nuremberg Laws of September 1935 were a set of racial laws which set out a number of restrictions on Jewish people such as depriving them of the right to German citizenship and right to marry non-Jews. Amendments to the laws then defined...

Grace O'Malley (l. c. 1530-1603) was an Irish chieftain and seafarer who became famous as a pirate and rebel during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603) who was trying to increase her control of Irish lands. O'Malley's exploits...

The Year of the Four Emperors (69 CE) was a brief period of political upheaval and civil war in the Roman Empire. In the aftermath of the death of Emperor Nero, four men – Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian – were recognized as emperor...

The Sturmabteilung (SA or Storm Detachment), popularly known as the Brownshirts for their uniform, was the paramilitary arm of the German Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). The SA was formed in 1921 and led most famously by Ernst...

Camille Desmoulins (1760-1794) was one of the most prominent journalists during the French Revolution (1789-1799). A fervent republican, he played an important role in the Storming of the Bastille, when he called the people to arms. Although...

Rudolf Hess (1894-1987) was deputy leader of the German Nazi Party and a key figure in the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) until his bizarre decision in 1941 to fly to Scotland. Hess believed he could persuade Britain to withdraw...

The Junkers Ju 87 'Stuka' was a two-seater dive-bomber plane used by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) in various theatres of the Second World War (1939-45). The Stuka, with its distinctive angled wings, excelled when combined with armoured...

The Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) was the last major popular insurrection during the French Revolution (1789-1799). It was the final time that the sans-culottes played an important role in French politics until the revolutions...