Storming: Did you mean...?

The assassination of revolutionary activist and Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793 was one of the most iconic moments of the French Revolution (1789-1799), immortalized in Jacques-Louis David's painting Death of Marat. Marat's...

Throughout the 15th century, the Portuguese Crown yearned for a piece of the Far Eastern spice trade. For centuries this trade had been dominated by the Venetians who obtained pepper, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon from their Middle...

The Coronation of Napoleon I as Emperor of the French took place on Sunday 2 December 1804, in the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. A sacred ceremony held to legitimize Napoleon's reign, the coronation signaled the birth of the First French...

The fall of the Girondins, which occurred during the Paris insurrections of 31 May-2 June 1793, marked the end of a bitter power struggle between the Girondins and the Mountain during the French Revolution (1789-99). It was significant for...

The Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812) was a major battle fought during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. It saw the French Grande Armée of Emperor Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814; 1815) narrowly defeat an imperial Russian army under Mikhail Kutuzov...

The Battle of Wagram (5-6 July 1809) was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It resulted in a pyrrhic victory for French Emperor Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814; 1815) whose army crossed the Danube River...

The two sieges of Cusco in 1536-7 were the last great military actions by the Incas as they tried to reclaim their empire from the Spanish conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro (c. 1478-1541). The European cavalry proved all but invincible...

Hannibal Barca (l. 247-183 BCE), the brilliant Carthaginian general of the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), had the military talent, expertise, and skill to have won the conflict but was denied the resources by his government. The Carthaginian...

The poster for John Wayne's The Alamo (1960) celebrates its history with the line, "The Mission That Became a Fortress…The Fortress That Became A Shrine…," which is a concise and accurate summary of the story of the structure famously known...

Colonel José Enrique de la Peña (1807-1840) was an officer in the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution in 1836 and was present during the siege of the Alamo, participated in the Battle of the Alamo, and retreated from Texas after President/General...