Duke Ellington: Did you mean...?

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is the highest order of knighthood in Britain and the most exclusive with traditionally only 24 knights as full members at any one time, along with the reigning monarch and the Prince of Wales...

The Spanish Armada of 1588 was the naval component of Philip II of Spain's planned invasion of England during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). The conflict developed from...

The most important cash crop in Colonial America was tobacco, first cultivated by the English at their Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1610 CE by the merchant John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE). Tobacco grew in the wild...

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, both fought on 14 October 1806, marked a major turning point in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It saw the French Grande Armée, led by Emperor Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814; 1815) soundly...

Illuminated manuscripts are, as their name suggests, hand-made books illumined by gold and silver ink. They were produced in Western Europe between c. 500 and c. 1600 CE and their subject matter is usually Christian...

Colonel Thomas Blood, a known conspirator, made an infamous but unsuccessful attempt to steal the British Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671. Disguised as a clergyman, Blood and his gang swiped...

The Grand Embassy was the name given to the long Western European tour that Tsar Peter I of Russia (aka Peter the Great, r. 1682-1725) undertook during 1697-1698. Peter was joined by hundreds of people, including...

The history of tobacco use in the Americas goes back over 1,000 years when natives of the region chewed or smoked the leaves of the plant now known as Nicotiana rustica (primarily in the north) and Nicotiana...

The Siege of Acre, located on the northern coast of Israel, was the first major battle of the Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE). The protracted siege by a mixed force of European armies against the Muslim garrison and nearby...

The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) was an intermittent conflict fought between England and France that started when king Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377) squabbled with Philip VI of France (r. 1328-1350) over...