Jim Whiting
When the Great War began in August 1914, many people thought it would be over by Christmas. Instead it lasted for more than four years and claimed millions of lives.
The most dominant feature of the conflict was the seemingly endless miles of trenches that faced each other, often just a few hundred yards apart. The only way of attacking was through brutal frontal assaults. Often thousands of men died in a few hours. When they weren't fighting,
...2) Rosa Parks
6) Anne Frank
8) Galileo
One of the most famous trials in U.S. history took place in a tiny town in Tennessee in 1925. Dayton was the site of what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.
The defendant, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating a recently passed state law. This law made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Under most circumstances, few people would have paid any attention to the trial.
Several of Dayton's leading citizens saw a chance to put
...11) Robert Fulton
Until she was thirteen, Joan of Arc led a normal life. Then she began hearing voices. She believed these voices spoke for God. At first, they told her to be a good girl. A few years later, they told her that her destiny was to save France from its English invaders. Joan's inspirational leadership helped the French to defeat the English at the city of Orleans. Soon afterward, she persuaded the crown prince Charles to become King of France.
A few
...The Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II is often referred to as Rameses the Great. His reign lasted for 67 years, the second longest in Egypt's 3,000-year history. He had dozens of wives and more than 100 children, outliving many of them. He was a military leader who expanded the borders of his country, bringing decades of peace and prosperity for his people. He ordered huge statues of himself to be erected all over Egypt.
Many historians believe that
...16) Hernando Cortés
The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortés is a very controversial figure. To some people, he was heroic. Even though he was greatly outnumbered, he was able to defeat the Aztec Emperor Montezuma and conquer the Aztec empire because of his personal courage and leadership abilities. The Aztec empire was centered in modern-day Mexico. Its religion was based on human sacrifice. Cortés replaced it with Christianity.
To others, including many Mexicans,
...When a teenager named Octavian learned that he was the heir of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, it seemed like a recipe for disaster. Caesar had just been assassinated, and in the chaotic world of Roman politics the inexperienced young man would seem to have no chance against men two and three times his age. But Octavian had a genius for politics. Within a year he emerged as one of three leaders of Rome. Just over a decade later he
...18) Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the equal of her husband, President John Adams, in many ways. She had strong views about women's rights and slavery, and she let him know exactly how she felt. Her strength and wisdom left a lasting mark on the fledgling U.S.
19) Bubonic Plague
In the middle of the fourteenth century, a terrible and mysterious plague swept across Europe and Asia. One in every three Europeans died during the five years that it terrified the continent. People tried all sorts of ways to avoid catching the Black Death. They carried flowers, burned incense, fired cannons, and rang church bells. They nailed whole families in their homes to try to keep the disease from spreading. Nothing seemed to help. The
...20) Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh was a tormented man. From a young age, he was troubled by fits of depression. After a string of unfulfilling jobs and failed relationships, he found that painting would relieve him from his suffering. Even so, he cut off part of his left ear in a fit of rage. While in the hospital, doctors tried to diagnose his melancholy.
Once he was released, he continued to paint. In a remarkable career that spanned a little over ten years,
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