Category Archives: HISTORY
Princess Elizabeth’s preparation to be the Queen
On 10th December 1936, Princess Elizabeth of York was with her sister, Margaret, in their London home, 145 Piccadilly, when she became aware of people shouting for her father outside. Her father was away and her mother was ill in bed. Finally, she went to ask a footman the reason for the commotion. He replied that her beloved uncle, Edward VIII, had abdicated and her father was king.
The Indians of American Northwest Coast
The Northwest coast offers a mild climate with a wide array of food resources. Several distinctive cultures developed on the Northwest Coast from the Columbia River through coastal British Columbia to the top of the Alaskan panhandle. The cultures are very similar in some ways and remarkably diverse in others. People from all regions developed a rich ceremonial and spiritual life. They invested tremendous creative energy in artistic expressions, including songs, dances, legends and spectacular, philosophically powerful art work.
Spanish volunteers for Nazi Germany: The Blue Division
On the beginning of World War II Franco’s Spain just went through the civil war that lasted long enough to drain country’s resources, so General Francisco Franco, though he supported Axis cause, was reluctant to bring Spain officially into the war conflict. But General Franco allowed number of volunteers to serve under German’s command, and, in the same time, he continued to maintain Spain’s neutrality. Shortly after the operation Barbarossa and invasion of the Russia, Joachim von Ribbentrop received Spanish offer for help, and also Adolf Hitler agreed with it.
Roman’s “thumbs up” for the death
Neither Roman spectators calling for the death of the gladiator, nor Roman Emperors authorising one, ever gave a thumbs down. In fact, the Romans did not use a “thumbs down” at all. If death was desired, the thumb was stuck up – like a drawn sword. For a loser’s life to be spared, the thumb was tucked away inside the closed fist – as with a sheathed weapon. This is expressed in latin as pollice compresso favor iudicabatur, “goodwill is decided by the thumb being kept in”.
Walter Ulbricht biography
It’s not insignificant that high school students in both parts of Germany know spot-on jokes about Walter Ulbricht: the now-deceased eighty-year-old left just as profound a mark on the political consciousness of Germans after the Second World War as Konrad Adenauer. And he was able to do this although even his most dispassionate critics ascribed to him all the qualities that normally stand in the way of political success: he was dry, boring, pale, not well connected, unimaginative, unattractive.