Even the best laid plans for an assassination can go awry, as one of the most famous military commanders of the Middle Ages, Vlad III, realized when he attempted to cut off the Ottoman Empire at the head. The Night Attack at Targoviste came at the end of a particularly violent struggle between the …
A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough. — epitaph on the tomb of Alexander the Great Kings who conquer huge swathes of the known world before they are in their mid-thirties generally don’t die outside of battle, so it should come as no surprise that the rumors of poisoning began …
Kara Mustafa Pasha was in the public eye from his marriage sometime in the mid-1600s until approximately 1976 when his purported mummified head was removed from display at the Vienna Museum. The display of the (alleged) head of Kara Mustafa Pasha in Vienna had particular meaning; it was Kara Mustafa Pasha, as the Grand …
The tiny African island of Mauritius is only slightly bigger than the City of London, and much less densely packed – slightly more than 1.2 million people versus London’s nearly 9 million. The island punched above its weight in providing heroic agents for the Allied Cause in World War II, however. One of those …
To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organization prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret. — stated purpose of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt When Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, the news abounded with references to a secret organization with far-reaching …
World War I nearly started in 1909 over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Worried about a changing circumstance in Europe after the Young Turk Revolution and increasingly bothered by the rhetoric from Serbia, Austria-Hungary felt it had to act in order to preserve the integrity of its borders and its empire. On 6 October 1908, they announced …
“In a home where the woman speaks, there is discord.” —Rwandan proverb Agathe Uwilingiyimana was not known for being quiet. Born an ethnic Hutu in Rwanda in the village of Butare, her parents spent the first few years of her life working in the Congo. By 1957 they returned, and Agathe buckled down to her …
The Battle of Kumanovo, on 23 October 1912, marked the end of the Ottoman Empire in Europe – even if the Ottomans didn’t quite fully accept the loss until May 1913. It was a victory that shocked the Great Powers of Europe; that the small and seemingly backward nations of the Balkans- long viewed as …
When the Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi was captured on 21 October 1956, the military portion of the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya was effectively over. That did not end the British system of camps, called the “Pipeline“, nor did it end the systemized torture torture and brutality that played a large role in quelling …
On 3 October 1935, the Italian army invaded Ethiopia without a formal declaration of war. It was the culmination of aggressions and arguments with its most recent genesis in the 1931 Italian act of building a fort in the No-Man’s Land of Walwal. The Ethiopian army was not prepared. Then followed the fall of Ethiopia’s great …
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