Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple ...By Scott Allsop

Officially known as the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organisation in honour of the recently deceased Bolshevik leader, the Young Pioneers were modelled in part on scouting organisations, but with a strong political and ideological framework aligned with the principles of the Communist ...By Scott Allsop

The Parliament sought to draft a constitution to unify the independent German states into a single nation governed by liberal principles, but faced significant challenges from the outset and was dissolved by force in June ...By Scott Allsop

The Seven Years’ War is widely regarded as the first truly global conflict as the declaration of war marked the start of full-scale hostilities between the major European powers and their colonies across the ...By Scott Allsop

The device constructed by Maiman used a small rod of synthetic ruby crystal, surrounded by a helical flash lamp that provided the necessary energy to excite the atoms within the ruby, and is often seen as the start of the 'laser ...By Scott Allsop

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, ...By Scott Allsop

Lucretia Brown was a member of the Christian Science religion and alleged that a man named Daniel Spofford had used his "mesmeric" mental powers to harm her, asking the court to prevent Spofford from exercising control over her through his mental ...By Scott Allsop

Britain's declaration of neutrality recognised the Union and the Confederacy as belligerents, allowing the Confederacy to contract for supplies and commission warships, but it fell short of recognising the Confederacy as a sovereign nation. This protected British interests by avoiding entanglement in the conflict while maintaining the country’s rig…

The Donner Party departed Independence, Missouri on their ill-fated journey to ...By Scott Allsop

Ranked as the 259th most powerful computer in the world, Deep Blue was able to evaluate 200 million separate chess positions per ...By Scott Allsop

The ‘Golden Spike’ symbolised the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad, which had built eastward from California, and the Union Pacific Railroad, which had built westward from Nebraska to form a continuous rail link between the east and west coasts of the ...By Scott Allsop

Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of ...By Scott Allsop

The Tollund Man was remarkably well-preserved thanks to the cold, acidic, and low oxygen conditions of the peat bog, which slowed ...By Scott Allsop

The Cult of the Supreme Being recognised that God had created the universe, but that He did not interfere or intervene in its operation. Therefore it taught that humans were responsible for their own actions and ...By Scott Allsop

West Germany’s Federal Archives revealed that forensic tests proved the Hitler Diaries were ...By Scott Allsop

When the Estates General opened on 5 May many hoped that it would provide a platform for reform, but in practice it acted as a precursor to the French ...By Scott Allsop

Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State University ...By Scott Allsop

The Government of Ireland Act established one parliament in Belfast for Northern Ireland and another in Dublin for Southern Ireland. While both remained under the authority of the United Kingdom, each was granted a degree of self-governance and the border remains today as the boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern ...…

The Hudson's Bay Company maintained a monopoly over trade in the area for over 200 years, ensuring it had a lasting impact on the economic and political development of what would later become ...By Scott Allsop

The Covenant of Perfectibility, the forerunner of the original Bavarian Illuminati, was founded by Adam Weishaupt in ...By Scott Allsop

The French government sold the entire Louisiana Territory, which included an area that now forms part of fifteen separate states, at less than 3 cents per ...By Scott Allsop

Sir Francis Drake entered the Bay of Cádiz and attacked the Spanish naval fleet in an event known as ‘Singeing the King of Spain's ...By Scott Allsop

Ali's refusal to be inducted led to him being stripped of his boxing titles and later convicted of draft evasion for which he was sentenced to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, and a ban from boxing. He remained free on bail while the case was under ...By Scott Allsop

Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans near the village of Dongo whilst attempting to flee to Switzerland, and was executed the next ...By Scott Allsop

He was dragged out of the barn where he had been hiding and died three hours ...By Scott Allsop

The canal was designed as a sea-level waterway stretching approximately 120 miles across the Isthmus of Suez, and its completion in 1869, ten years after work began, significantly reduced travel time between Europe and ...By Scott Allsop

The Kinder Mass Trespass involved approximately 400 people walking to the Kinder Scout plateau in deliberate defiance of the landowners, in a protest in favour of the right to ...By Scott Allsop

Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria signed the Reinheitsgebot, a law to ensure the purity of beer that specified a limited number of ...By Scott Allsop

Over five thousand French Algerian, Moroccan and territorial troops died within ten minutes of the chlorine gas being ...By Scott Allsop

Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, had established a power base in Kabul but the victory at Panipat gave him control of Delhi and Agra, allowing him to establish the foundations of what would become the Mughal Empire in ...By Scott Allsop

Painting the windows of the Astrodome significantly improved the situation for the players, but in turn led to the grass inside dying from a lack of light. It was replaced with an artificial alternative, which became known as ...By Scott Allsop

As the British troops arrived in Lexington, they encountered a small group and, although the exact events that unfolded are unclear, a shot was fired that initiated the first skirmish of the American Revolutionary ...By Scott Allsop

The Doolittle Raid saw sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers demonstrate Japan’s vulnerability to air raids, and forced the Japanese military to divert resources to homeland ...By Scott Allsop

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was launched by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade ...By Scott Allsop

Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil and the defeat ended Jacobite hopes of restoring the Stuart monarchy to the ...By Scott Allsop

Lincoln’s call for volunteers was part of his effort to maintain the authority of the federal government after several southern states seceded from the ...By Scott Allsop

The future Roman Emperor Titus began the Siege of Jerusalem, during which the Second Temple was burned and ...By Scott Allsop

MKUltra was established during the Cold War to explore ways to manipulate human behaviour using drugs, hypnosis, psychological conditioning, and other ...By Scott Allsop

The Canadian Corps successfully captured Vimy Ridge in the First World ...By Scott Allsop

On 11 April 1951, Truman announced that he had removed MacArthur from his command and replaced him with General Matthew Ridgway, emphasising that military leaders must follow policies set by civilian ...By Scott Allsop

The United States table tennis team heralded the era of ‘ping pong diplomacy’ by becoming the first official American delegation to visit China in 20 ...By Scott Allsop

Scott developed the phonautograph, which used a horn to collect sound waves and direct them onto a membrane, and made a recording of a fragment of the song “Au Clair de la Lune” on 9 April ...By Scott Allsop

Times Square in New York was given its name shortly after the offices of The New York Times moved to the ...By Scott Allsop

Turpin committed numerous highway robberies and soon became one of the most notorious criminals of his time, though he was ultimately executed for horse ...By Scott Allsop

The United States entered the First World War after Congress declared war on the German ...By Scott Allsop

To the ship’s crew the voyage to the New World was just a delivery contract between the Pilgrims and the ship’s master, Christopher ...By Scott Allsop

Shortly after his inauguration, Harrison developed a cold that worsened into pneumonia from which he died. As well as becoming the first U.S. president to die in office this also marked the shortest presidency in US ...By Scott Allsop

As James stood on a chair and turned to clean a dirty picture frame in his house, Robert Ford shot him in the back of the head from virtually point-blank ...By Scott Allsop

The human cannonball act was developed by "The Great Farini" and performed by 17-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter, who was propelled over 6 metres at a show in the theatre of London’s Royal ...By Scott Allsop

At the time of its formation, the RAF had around 20,000 aircraft and more than 300,000 personnel with its primary mission being to provide air support to ground and naval operations, conduct strategic bombing, and defend Britain from aerial ...By Scott Allsop