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Gela
Gela (Greek: Ghéla), in southern Sicily, was a Greek colony founded c. 689 BCE and it remained an important cultural centre throughout antiquity. Prospering on trade and expanding its territory, the city-state founded Agrigento. In the...
Definition
Bleeding Kansas - Dress Rehearsal for the American Civil War
Bleeding Kansas' was a term coined by the New York Tribune in 1856, referring to the escalating hostilities in the Kansas Territory between pro-slavery activists and anti-slavery 'free staters'...
Definition
Homestead Act - Settling the American West
The Homestead Act was a policy enacted by the United States government on 20 May 1862 to encourage westward expansion. Passed during the American Civil War (1861-1865), the act offered 160 acres (65 ha) of...
Definition
Webster-Hayne Debate
The Webster-Hayne debate was a series of back-and-forth speeches between Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina in January 1830. What started as a debate over the sale of western...
Definition
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
The Chesapeake-Leopard affair was an incident that took place off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 June 1807 when the British warship HMS Leopard fired on and boarded an American frigate USS Chesapeake while searching...
Definition
Manhattan Project - How the Atomic Bomb Was Built
The Manhattan Project was the code name for the secret US-led programme to develop an atomic bomb during the Second World War (1939-45). Hugely expensive and employing the best scientific minds from Europe...
Definition
Library of Pergamon
The Library of Pergamon was established in the city of Pergamon (also Pergamum) by the Attalid King Eumenes II (r. 197-159 BCE) and became the most famous and well-respected center of learning after the Library at Alexandria...
Definition
Adolf Eichmann - The Notorious Nazi War Criminal
Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962), a lieutenant-colonel in the Nazi SS, was responsible for organising the transportation of Jewish people and other victims of Nazism to concentration, labour, and death camps...
Definition
London Blitz
The London Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain's capital by the German and Italian air forces from September 1940 to May 1941 during the Second World War (1939-45). The objective was to bomb Britain into submission, but despite...
Definition
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes was a pivotal moment of the French Revolution (1789-1799), in which King Louis XVI of France (r.1774-92), his wife Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-93), and their children attempted to escape from Paris on...