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
4) Galileo
6) Anne Frank
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
...12) 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
...14) Claude Monet
In 1868, Impressionist painter Claude Monet was desperate. Though he had been painting for a decade, he was living in poverty. He had to support his girlfriend and infant son on his meager earnings. His relatives refused to help him out, so he begged for money from his friends, telling them that his situation seemed hopeless.
Yet just over two decades later, with brisk sales through an art dealer, Monet had become wealthy and famous. People came
...Julius Caesar is one of the most famous figures in ancient Rome. He was born into a turbulent era, when different factions were trying to control the government. He survived and began a steady rise in importance.
He became a very successful military commander who added more than 200,000 square miles to the territories under Rome's control. But his triumphs created powerful enemies in Rome. They wanted to strip him of his power. He defeated those
...The formation of the State of Israel in 1948 is one of the most important events in recent history. About 3,000 years ago, Israel was a powerful nation. But it soon fell from power and in the second century CE most Jews were forced out of their homeland. Many went to Europe, where they were subject to prejudice and persecution for centuries. By far the worst case was the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed. Their suffering accelerated
...17) 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
...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.
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
...To some people, Genghis Khan was a very evil man. He reportedly killed millions of people, most of them in cold blood. To others, he was the man who established an era of peace and prosperity. This achievement allowed the free exchange of ideas and new inventions between Asia and Europe. One thing is certain. According to the results of a newspaper poll, he was the Man of the Millennium. That means he was the most important human being to live
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