January: Did you mean...?

The long-term goal of the Bolsheviks, who took power by force in Russia in November 1917, was a fairer society where workers and peasants were not exploited by wealthy capitalists. The more immediate consequences, though, of the Bolshevik...

The trial and execution of King Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792) was one of the most impactful events of the French Revolution (1789-99). In December 1792, the former king, now referred to as Citizen Louis Capet, was tried and found guilty...

There was actually only one cause for the American Civil War: slavery. All the events leading to the Civil War, understood as steps moving steadily up the conflict, had slavery as the underlying cause for upset and increasing division between...

In his search to secure the continuation of the Tudor line, Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547 CE) married an incredible six times. Some marriages were the result of passion while others were arranged for political reasons. One divorce caused...

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the opening encounter of the Anglo-Zulu War and a famous Zulu victory against the British Army. Over 25,000 Zulu warriors attacked and destroyed a British-led force of 1,700 men camped at the...

In response to Martin Luther's 95 Theses, as well as his other works, Pope Leo X sent a papal bull threatening him with excommunication in June 1520. Luther publicly burned the bull at Wittenberg on 10 December 1520 and was officially excommunicated...

Christmas was one of the highlights of the medieval calendar, not only for the rich but also for the peasantry. For the longest holiday of the year, typically the full twelve days of Christmas, people stopped work, homes were decorated and...

The Battle of Princeton (3 January 1777) was a small, yet significant, battle of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in which the American Continental Army surprised and defeated a British force at Princeton, New Jersey. The battle...

Of the many first-person accounts of the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre, the report by Sioux author and physician Charles A. Eastman (also known as Ohiyesa, l. 1858-1939) is among the best-known. Eastman describes his experiences...

Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski, photograph by Karol Beyer, c. 1861-1863. Appointed by the Tsar to dampen brewing discontent and growing independence feeling in Warsaw, Wielopolski (1803-1877), a Polish aristocrat, devised a plan to conscript...