The Danish Viking army of Ivar the Boneless first took York in 866, but occupation was at first intermittent. After the victory of Alfred the Great over the Viking leader Guthrum in 878, the division of England became more formalized; the Danelaw, the territory where the Vikings held sway, ran... More
In 1953, the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, began the Virgin Lands campaign to cultivate the steppe lands, mainly in northern Kazakhstan, for grain production. This area was chosen because it had higher rainfall and better soil than neighbouring regions, as well as a low population. The campaign was successful... More
After the Western Roman Empire fell at the beginning of the 5th century, a period of fluctuating migration and warring between tribes in the former Roman lands began. The Vandals, who originated in Scandinavia, were pushed into North Africa by an alliance of Romans and Visigoths after a reign of... More
The 1896 presidential election ended in the Republican victory of William McKinley against Democrat, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley was the first American president to use modern campaign techniques, spending $3.5 million on his bid for the presidency, five times the Bryan campaign sum. The central issue was whether to take... More
In 1964 a wave of violent demonstrations over voting rights in the South, culminating in an attack by state troopers on peaceful marchers at Selma, Alabama, had convinced President Johnson that voting reform was long overdue. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act on 6 August 1965. It used the 14th... More
The Admiral Scheer was one of three heavy cruisers built by the Reichsmarine – known as Deutschland-class cruisers – in response to the restrictions on the size of warships set out in the Treaty of Versailles. With the Germans employing a strategy of guerre de course (commerce raiding), in October... More
On 1 August SMS Emden, a light cruiser, left the German naval base at Tsingtao, China, and headed towards Pagan Island, where it was determined that Captain von Müller would use the Emden to intercept Allied ships in the Indian Ocean. Between 19–25 August it travelled through Dutch neutral waters... More
The might of Egypt at the apex of the Middle Kingdom is reflected in the story of Sinuhe who, welcomed and ennobled by his hosts in exile in Canaan, returns to be feted at home. By contrast, Wenamun, a priestly official despatched to Lebanon to collect a consignment of cedarwood,... More
Despite Cook’s demonstration of the dimensions of Australia in his first voyage, contemporary scientists believed the real Terra Australis was bigger still and further south. In 1772, he was commissioned to find it. His expedition visited a number of Polynesian islands, and discovered the bellicose propensities of the Maori tribes.... More
The Ming made a powerful – and risky – statement of intent when they moved their capital to Beijing. Close to the notoriously porous borders with the warlike Mongol khanates, past rulers of China (1271–1368), it made secure defences crucial. The Ming would make massive, but ultimately futile efforts to... More
The war had three main theatres: the Gulf of Mexico and American southwest; the Atlantic seaboard; and, the Canadian borders. Initially, preoccupied by the war with Napoleon, the British adopted a defensive stance, using their naval supremacy to blockade American ports, although, with the aid of their Indian allies, gains... More
Germany was the heartland of the Reformation, which began in 1517, and many princes of the Holy Roman Empire converted to the Protestant cause, leading to intermittent religious conflict. In 1531 the Lutheran territories of the Empire formed a defensive league, the Schmalkaldic League, to resist any attempt to enforce... More