2026-10-22 · lang_en
Harrison W. Mark
Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was the thirteenth president of the United States. A member of the Whig Party, he was elected vice president in 1849 and assumed the presidency the following year after the death of his predecessor, Zachary Taylor. Fillmore is primarily remembered for presiding over the Compromise of 1850, which postponed the outbreak of the American Civil War for a decade, as well as for sending out the Perry Expedition, which opened isolationist Japan to the West. Although he served during a pivotal moment in US history, Fillmore is often regarded as a weak president and is barely remembered today at all by most Americans.
2026-10-22 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
The Epic of Gilgamesh is among the most popular works of literature in the present day and has influenced countless readers, but for the greater part of its history, it was lost. The Assyrian Empire fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BCE, who sacked and burned the Assyrian cities and, among them, Nineveh.
2026-10-21 · lang_en
Rebecca Denova
The ideal of Christendom in antiquity joined separate nations into one single community carrying out the precepts of the God of Israel. Constantine's conversion to Christianity resulted in the merging of state and church, with a creed of what all Christians should believe and practice. As Roman emperor, Constantine had the authority to enforce both religious and secular laws.
2026-10-20 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk, best known as the hero of The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100 to circa 1200 BCE), the great Babylonian poem that predates Homer's Iliad and Odyssey by 1500 years and, therefore, stands as the oldest piece of epic world literature. Gilgamesh features in several Sumerian poems but is world famous from the Mesopotamian epic.
2026-10-19 · lang_en
Rebecca Denova
The ideal of Christendom is a historical and political vision where society and government are unified under the Christian faith. According to this vision, power on Earth is divided between the church through the clergy and secular rulers. The church oversaw spiritual needs, and secular rulers enforced their views and protected the church, while both were understood as carrying out the commandments of the God of Israel.
2026-10-16 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird is a Sumerian myth dated to the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE) featuring the hero-king of Uruk, Lugalbanda, father of Gilgamesh, in his younger years as an honorable officer in the army. Lugalbanda's purity of spirit and kindness to the great bird's offspring are emphasized as qualities befitting a future king.
2026-10-15 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
In this gallery of 75 images, we examine the key features of WWII's Pacific War. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii, Japan continued to expand its empire until the turning point of the Battle of Midway in mid-1942, when four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk. The US air, sea, and land forces then went on the offensive and proceeded over the next three years to liberate successive Pacific island groups. Japan itself was attacked but did not surrender until the dropping of two atomic bombs in August 1945.
2026-10-14 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
The Matter of Aratta is the modern-day title for a collection of four poems – Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, and Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird – concerning the rivalry between the cities of Uruk and Aratta and dated to the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE).
2026-10-13 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
Recruitment and training practices during the American Civil War varied according to the year, the commanding officer, and between the opposing forces, but followed the same basic model. When the war began in 1861, both sides believed it would be a short conflict and easily won. They both realized they were wrong after the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) on 21 July 1861.
2026-10-12 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
The Battle of Belmont (7 November 1861) was an engagement fought during the American Civil War in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat command of Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant in the war and the first battle experience of most of the men under him. The same was true of the Confederate soldiers fighting under Major General Leonidas Polk and Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow. The battle is considered inconclusive, as Grant failed to take and hold the Confederate position he had attacked, and the forces under Pillow failed to capture Grant and his forces. The Confederates claimed it as a victory because the Union army fled the field in a rout. Grant also claimed victory, however, because he had achieved his two objectives: destroy the Confederate camp below Columbus, Kentucky, and frighten Polk into keeping his forces close in the city instead of reinforcing other positions.
2026-10-09 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
Raising toasts, sharing cups of cheer, and singing raucous songs while partaking of alcohol are customs which date back to the early Middle Ages in England. Several of the more formal customs persist today in public and private institutions that cherish traditions. Nowadays, glass dominates when landlords pull a pint, but this was not always so. From Peg tankards to Toby jugs, from tanned leather to pewter, landlords of the past were wont to serve beers and ales in all kinds of ingenious ways, encouraging overconsumption and raising a giggle amongst the revellers.
2026-10-08 · lang_en
Arash Ahmadzadeh
During the reign of Louis XIV of France (1643-1715), music accompanied some of the most visible occasions of royal life: entrances, diplomatic receptions, religious services, court festivals, ballets, and eventually tragédie en musique. To explain this phenomenon simply through the king's enthusiasm for music, patronage, or propaganda, however, would be insufficient. Music belonged to a broader culture of royal representation in which myth, dance, poetry, costume, architecture, painting, ritual, and sound associated Louis with victory, peace, splendour, concord, and order. Music was therefore one element within a much broader artistic system through which the monarchy constructed and communicated its public image.
2026-10-08 · lang_en
Donald L. Wasson
With the appearance of the legionary, the Roman army was able to maintain a vast empire that totally embraced the Mediterranean Sea. Although the success of the army rested on the backs of the foot-soldiers and cavalry, there were others on the field and in camp who enabled them to prevail. Besides the famed centurion who stood at the front of his cohort and led his legionaries into battle, there was a command hierarchy of military tribunes, a camp prefect, and a legate. Alongside the centurion in the thick of battle were the principales: optio, signifier, aquilifer, and tesserarius. There were others, some with specialized skills, who were as essential but remained in camp. These were the immunes and beneficiarii: laborers, clerks, surveyors, architects, engineers, and orderlies. The legionaries could not have conquered and maintained an empire without this capable support; together they made the Roman army a feared adversary for over eight centuries.
2026-10-07 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
The rulers of China's Ming dynasty (1368-1644) acquired an insatiable desire for silver in the 16th century, largely to pay for huge prestige projects like building the Forbidden City in Beijing and repairing the Great Wall of China. A new tax system, the Single Whip Reform, had to be paid in silver. Another major source of silver bullion was trade with Japan and European merchants who brought silver from the mines in Spanish America via the Manila galleons. When the silver supply weakened in the 17th century, this contributed to the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Qing dynasty in 1644.
2026-10-06 · lang_en
Jan van der Crabben
Two major revolutions remade the world between 1750 and 1900. The first was a revolution of the mind: thinkers of the Enlightenment argued that authority was based upon reason and consent, rather than birth or divine right. Both in Europe and the Americas, many people heeded their words, wanting to control their own destiny – first in British North America, then in France, Haiti, and Spanish America.
2026-10-06 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
Ulysses S. Grant's victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson (11-16 February 1862) during the American Civil War elevated him to national fame, opened the Cumberland River to Union traffic, captured 12,000-15,000 Confederate soldiers, including officers, and led directly to the fall of the Confederate industrial center and state capital of Nashville, Tennessee, and the withdrawal of Confederate troops from Columbus, Kentucky.
2026-10-05 · lang_en
Joshua J. Mark
The Battle of Fort Donelson (11-16 February 1862) was a Union victory in the Western theater of the American Civil War on the Cumberland River near the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The campaign followed the Union victory at the Battle of Fort Henry (6 February 1862) and was a joint venture between Ulysses S. Grant of the US Army and Andrew H. Foote of the US Navy, commanding over 24,000 troops.
2026-10-05 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
Paper money was invented in China and became widely used by merchants during the Song dynasty (960-1279), principally as proof of cash holdings in state treasuries and for larger trade transactions. The greater security and convenience of paper money were significant advantages as commerce boomed and merchants travelled far and wide. Coinage and silver ingots remained popular, however, especially when high inflation rendered paper money almost obsolete in the late 13th century.
2026-10-02 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
The Cheka (Vecheka) Secret Police was created by Vladimir Lenin's Soviet government in December 1917 to ruthlessly stamp out all opposition to the Bolshevik Revolution. During the Russian Civil War, the Cheka operated without restrictions of any kind, arresting, torturing, and executing without trial tens of thousands of citizens deemed enemies of the state. The Cheka, dissolved in 1922, was the first of many Soviet incarnations of a secret police force which involved itself in every aspect of public and private life in the USSR.
2026-10-01 · lang_en
Mark Cartwright
In this collection of resources, we examine the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381, a popular uprising that sought dramatic social changes such as the removal of the poll tax, an end to the cap on labour wages, redistribution of the Church's wealth, and the total abolition of serfdom. Although the rebellion was quashed, some of these demands were met by the reigning monarch, Richard II of England. The collection provides the context and deeper causes of the revolt, such as the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, the structure of medieval society, and the role of the medieval Church.
2026-07-22
Joshua J. Mark
The Nimrud Ivories are a vast collection of figures, panels, and plaques, carved from ivory, dated to the 9th to 7th centuries BCE, discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Nimrud. Today, they are considered among the finest archaeological jewels of ancient Mesopotamia - and their history is fascinating.
2026-07-22
Joshua J. Mark
Abner Doubleday (1819-1893), an officer in the US Army during the American Civil War, is famous today for two events – neither of which actually happened:
2026-07-21
Joshua J. Mark
A Praise Poem of Lipit-Estar is a Sumerian praise song honoring Lipit-Estar (also known as Lipit-Ishtar, reign circa 1935 to circa 1924 BCE), the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Isin, best known for his legal code written between the time of the better-known Code of Ur-Nammu and the later Code of Hammurabi.
2026-07-20
Liam Athas
Miklós Horthy (1868-1957) was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who served as regent for the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 until his forced abdication in 1944. During the interwar period and for most of World War II, Horthy played a critical but controversial role in both Hungary's foreign and domestic affairs.
2026-07-20
Joshua J. Mark
The Eridu Genesis (also known as the Sumerian Flood Story, The Flood Story, Sumerian creation myth, Sumerian deluge myth) is the oldest Mesopotamian text relating the tale of the Great Flood that would appear in later works such as the Atrahasis (17th century BCE) and The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2150-1400 BCE). The title of the work comes from the modern era, coined in 1981 by the scholar Thorkild Jacobsen; the original name for the piece is unknown.
2026-07-17
Mark Cartwright
The North American P-51 Mustang was a long-range fighter aircraft used by the air forces of the United States and Great Britain during the Second World War (1939-45). Widely considered one of the most effective fighter planes of the war, the single-seater Mustang could operate as a reconnaissance aircraft, interceptor fighter, fighter-bomber, and long-range bomber escort. Used in most theatres of the war from 1944, the Mustang gained legendary status and continued to see action in the Korean War (1950-53).
2026-07-17
Liana Miate
In Greek mythology, Calypso, whose name means "to hide" or "to conceal," is a nymph best known from Homer's (c.750 BCE) epic The Odyssey for falling in love with Odysseus and imprisoning him on her island, Ogygia, for seven years (or five years, depending on the source), during his long voyage home.
2026-07-14
Joshua J. Mark
The Queen of the Night (also known as the "Burney Relief") is a high-relief terracotta plaque of baked clay, 19.4 inches (49.5 cm) high, 14.5 inches (37 cm) wide, with a thickness of 1.8 inches (4.8 cm), depicting a naked winged woman flanked by owls and standing on the backs of two lions. The piece originated in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), most probably in Babylonia, during the reign of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE), as it shares qualities in craftsmanship and technique with the famous diorite stele of Hammurabi's laws and also with the piece known as The God of Ur from that same period.
2026-07-09
Matthew Allison
Hara Castle was originally built in 1496 as a subsidiary fortification to nearby Hinoe Castle, with upgrades made from 1599 to 1604. Later dismantled and abandoned by the then daimyo (lord) Matsukura Shigemasa (1574-1630), it was briefly occupied by the rebels who took part in the Shimabara Rebellion (1637-38). It now exists as a series of ruins accessible by bus from the city of Shimabara.
2026-07-08
Reha Mert
Mahmud II was one of the most influential sultans of the Ottoman Empire. As a radical reformer, he strove to implement military and governmental reforms to prevent the empire from collapsing. His removal of the Janissary corps, the establishment of new government institutions, and new measures regarding appearance brought about radical changes in the Ottoman army and society, and because of this very reason, he was known as "Infidel Sultan." He laid the foundations of the modern state structure not only through military reforms but also through measures such as the first census, the first official gazette (Takvim-i Vekayi), the establishment of modern ministries (Interior, Foreign Affairs, etc.), and the modernization of the bureaucracy.