One of the world’s most famous self-portraits is going on rare public display in the northern Italian city of Turin. Very little is known about the 500-year-old, fragile, fading red chalk drawing of Leonardo da Vinci but some believe it has mystical powers. There is a myth in Turin that the gaze of Leonardo da…
Tag: war
Discovery of two vessels from WWII convoy battle off North Carolina
A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two…
Polish President marks anniversary of German invasion with address to Bundestag
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has delivered an address to the German Bundestag in commemoration of the Nazi invasion of Poland 75 years ago. Polish relations with Germany have developed at an extraordinary pace following the fall of the Iron Curtain, and certainly serves as a model for historical reconciliation among fellow European nations. Let us…
Podcast: The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Although this past August 23, 2014 marks the date in which the Nazi-Soviet Pact (also know as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) was signed in 1939, History Today is featuring a podcast delivered by Roger Moorhouse to discuss the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939-41. You can read Roger’s article on the subject, Under Two Flags , in the…
Leuven’s legacy: Century after razing of Belgian library, cultural destruction a wartime norm
A century after German forces burned down the Leuven University library, Marie Legrand still has visions of the horrid scene. Even the scent of smoke she smelled as a 3-year-old stings in her mind to this day. The First World War had started weeks earlier and Belgium had slowed Germany’s march on France much more…
Paris 1944: True stories behind liberation from the Nazis
On the morning of 19 August 1944, a 28-year-old Frenchman called Georges Loiseleur hurried down to the street from his flat on the Quai des Grands-Augustins. Paris was abuzz. A short distance away, he could hear chaotic sounds from the Ile de la Cite, where police had come out for the Resistance and taken control…
A secret encounter that shaped world history
It is perhaps one of the most important, yet least-known moments in Canadian history, an event that set out a future of peace when the world was enveloped in conflict and despair. In early August, 1941, just off the tiny town of Ship Harbour in Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay, two of the giants of the 20th…
How the first world war changed the world
“ON JULY 28th 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning the first world war. In the following four years, millions would lose their lives. What else changed? Economies shrank, stagnated and hyperinflated. It took over a decade for the German economy to recover to its size in 1913. Industry was weakened across Europe. As the continent splurged…
On the Hundredth Anniversary of the Start of World War I, Remembering the Part Animals Played
Tucked between two lanes of traffic at Brook Gate, in London’s leafy Hyde Park, two heavily laden mules, cast in bronze, trudge terrified but steadfast across an imaginary battlefield. In front of them, carved into a long wall of white Portland stone, is a frieze of other animals—an elephant, a camel, dogs, carrier pigeons—with an…
Canadian propaganda posters from the First World War
As you all know, this year marks the centenary of the beginning of World War I. In the spirit of remembering a profound and transformational time in human history, it is important to examine the role of communication, propaganda and mass media which began to play an ever more important role as the world entered WWI….
The Most Powerful Images Of World War I
This year marks 100 years since the outbreak of World War I. BuzzFeed has featured some very powerful images from World War I that provide for some retrospect on the Great War. The Most Powerful Images Of World War I
D-Day anniversary: ‘World-changing’ day remembered
The D-Day anniversary offers a unique moment to remember the world-changing Allied landings in Normandy. By the end of D-Day on 6 June 1944, the Allies had established a foothold in France – an event that would eventually help bring the war to an end. Upwards of 12,000 lives would be lost on D-Day, and…
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