Definitions

Crispus Attucks (l. c. 1723-1770) was an African American/Native American dockworker, sailor, and whaler who became famous as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre of 5 March 1770, which raised tensions leading to the American Revolution...

Denmark Vesey (c. 1767-1822) was a free Black man living in Charleston, South Carolina, as a carpenter and community leader. A former slave himself, Vesey became involved in the antislavery movement and was accused of planning a large-scale...

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was a four-engined, long-range bomber of the United States Air Force. The largest of all Second World War (1939-45) bombers, B-29s were used to strike Japanese targets from the summer of 1944. In August 1945...

The Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, led by the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), successfully crossed 8,000 km (5,000 miles) of the Pacific Ocean from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands on a balsa-wood raft. The aim of the expedition was to demonstrate...

Herakleia Lynkestis (Heraclea Lyncestis; Ἡράκλεια Λυγκηστίς) was a city in the ancient kingdom of Macedon not far from modern Bitola, founded c. 358 BCE by Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE) as a governing centre for his new expansions...

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was an American statesman and diplomat who served as the sixth president of the United States (1825-1829). The son of a former president, Adams had a long and distinguished political career both before and after...

Berenike IV (r. 58-55 BCE) was queen of Ptolemaic Egypt and the older sister of Cleopatra VII (r. 51-30 BCE). She ruled briefly after her father Ptolemy XII was overthrown by a popular rebellion. Berenike IV's reign ended in 55 BCE when her...

James Monroe (1758-1831) was an American statesman who served as the fifth president of the United States (1817-1825). The fourth president to belong to the so-called 'Virginia Dynasty', and the last of the generation of the Founding Fathers...

The First Agricultural Revolution, beginning c. 12-20,000 years ago, was characterized by the emergence of different agricultural systems in different parts of the world, whose common trait was the use of native species. Although agriculture...

The War of 1812 (1812-1815), referred to by some contemporaries as the Second American Revolution, was fought between the United States and the United Kingdom. Often remembered only as a sideshow to the Napoleonic Wars, the war had some long-term...