History

Refine Search

How did World War I lead to World War II?

Germany was dealt with especially harshly. The country, which had only been unified 50 years earlier, was forced to cede over 10 percent of its home territory and all of its overseas possessions. Germany was required to take full responsibility for World War I and agreed to pay crushing reparations that the fragile domestic economy couldn't hope to sustain. Militarist Germans were further insulted by the extreme restrictions on the size and composition of the post-war German army and navy.\nPolitically, the former German Empire was in chaos. The Kaiser's 1918 abdication left a power ..

Continue Reading

What was the Bataan Death March?

The death march began after the surrender of the American and Filipino joint army forces who had been besieged on the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon Island in the Philippines. The Japanese army sought to transfer these new prisoners of war to a camp large enough to accommodate them. After being forced to lay down weapons and turn over all personal effects, the soldiers were marched under duress to a camp outside the city of Balanga.\nAlong this route, a number of prisoners succumbed to dehydration, dysentery and malnutrition. Stragglers in the procession were beaten, cut with bayonets, and even exe..

Continue Reading

Where was the microscope invented?

The exact date of when the microscope was developed is still under debate, but it is known that it was developed in the Netherlands. Three men - Zaccharias Janssen, Hans Janssen and Antony Van Leeuwenhoek - have been credited for developing the first microscope.Zaccharias and his father Hans started experimenting with different lenses in the 1590s. They placed the lenses in a tube and found that they were able to increase the magnification of the object below it.Antony Van Leeuwenhoek advanced the study of microscopes in the late 17th century. He is known as the first person to use a real micr..

Continue Reading

What did Victorian money look like?

Bank notes limited to the values of ?5, ?10, ?20, ?100, ?200, ?500 and ?1,000 were officially issued by the Bank of England, according to historical novelist Anne Perry. The Victorian coin worth two pounds had an image of George IV's profile carved into one face and a horse carved on the other. The half penny was made of bronze and had Queen Victoria's profile etched on one side and a soldier on the other.

Continue Reading

What was Operation Mongoose?

The Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Department and State Department worked together on the operation, and General Edward Lansdale coordinated these efforts. Operation Mongoose involved many covert activities, such as gathering intelligence and locating Cubans who wanted to lead the overthrow of the government. It was rumored that an assassination plot was part of Operation Mongoose, but there is no clear evidence of this. The operation was suspended in 1962 after Soviet missiles were smuggled into Cuba.

Continue Reading

Who built the Titanic?

The designer of the Titanic was Thomas Andrews, a naval architect. The Titanic was the world's biggest passenger steamship of the time. It measured 25 stories high and 883 feet in length and weighed around 46,000 tons. It was built in Belfast in northern Ireland. It took 3,000 men to build the ship, and the 2,000 steel plates that formed the ship's hull were held together by 3 million rivets.

Continue Reading

What nine new nations were created by the Treaty of Versailles?

The Treaty of Versailles was quite long and had 15 separate parts with 440 articles. The Germans were upset with the treaty and did not want to sign it into action, but ultimately did, although the United States Senate did not ratify the treaty. The U.S. government also did not want to take part in enforcing the treaty, so the Belgians and the French were left to enforce it on their own. However, after 5 years, they modified parts of the treaty for Germany's sake because it was difficult to enforce the sanctions.When the Treaty of Versailles was signed, it ushered in a new era and put an ..

Continue Reading

How did the Cold War affect Europe?

The Iron Curtain was the name of the European split between communism and democracy. America and its allies sought to restore democracy to war-torn Europe, while Russia and its allies sought to expand its influence, making several countries part of the Soviet Union. Both Americans and Russians pulled out of Austria to give it neutrality, but at the same time, Hungary, which had a communist government, collapsed, and Russia intervened with a new communist regime. Poland was also under Russian influence.\nThe former Soviet satellites Hungary and Poland signaled the end of the cold war when they ..

Continue Reading

What were the main contributions of Joseph Lister?

Lister became a Professor of Surgery after moving to Glasgow in 1860. During this time, he became interested in the work of Pasteur and began to experiment with dressing wounds with carbolic acid, or phenol. His experimentation greatly reduced the frequency of infection.Lister lowered this frequency even further by introducing hand-washing, the sterilization of surgical instruments and a carbolic spray in operating theaters.Dr. Lister's contributions were so profound that he is remembered as the "father of antiseptic surgery." In fact, Listerine mouthwash, while not invented by Lister, wa..

Continue Reading

What happened to the man who killed Martin Luther King Jr?

Owing to financial difficulties, James Earl Ray's family moved several times during his childhood. He encountered upheaval when his younger sister died following a fire, and after the police began looking for his father because of forgery charges. Some of his previous convictions included armed robbery and burglary, both of which resulted in custodial jail sentences in the years running up to King's assassination. At the time of the assassination, Ray had escaped from prison and was on the run.Although many debated why Ray killed King, he was pro-segregation and there was evidence su..

Continue Reading
Showing 7801 to 7810 of 8554 (856 Pages)