Frederick I Barbarossa: Did you mean...?

John Brown (1800-1859) was a militant abolitionist best known for the part he played in the violence of Bleeding Kansas (1854-1859) and his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia) in October 1859. Brown developed an intense...

A July 1941 photograph showing lines of Soviet prisoners following the battle of Białystok-Minsk in Jun-Jul 1941 during Operation Barbarossa of the Second World War (1939-45). In the battle, the USSR's Red Army was defeated by Axis forces...

A July 1941 photograph showing the ruins of Minsk following the battle of Białystok-Minsk in Jun-Jul 1941 during Operation Barbarossa of the Second World War (1939-45). In the battle, the USSR's Red Army was defeated by Axis forces. (German...

Saladin (1137-93) was the Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193) who shocked the western world by defeating an army of the Christian Crusader states at the Battle of Hattin and then capturing Jerusalem in 1187. Saladin all but destroyed...

The medieval indulgence was a writ offered by the Church, for money, guaranteeing the remission of sin, and its abuse was the spark that inspired Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Luther (l. 1483-1546) claimed the sale of indulgences was unbiblical...

William "Box" Peel Jones was an enslaved African American who, in 1859, was shipped in a box from an unknown location to the home of the abolitionist William Still (1819-1902) in Philadelphia and then traveled on, with assistance from the...

Although John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood are consistently credited with the `discovery' of the Maya Civilization, there were many who preceded them who sparked their interest in making their famous travels through Mesoamerica...

The Vindication and Refutation of Thomas Müntzer (l. c. 1489-1525) is a 1524 open letter to Jesus Christ, Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546), and the Christian community charging Luther with hypocrisy, betraying his original vision to win support...

Blitzkrieg ('lightning war') is a military tactic combining air and land forces deployed at speed against the enemy's weaker points while the rear lines are simultaneously disrupted by acts of sabotage and bombing. Speed, concentration, and...

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...