Showing results by author "Hourly History" in All Categories

Mary Baker Eddy stands unique in our collective remembrances of supposed prophets of the bygone past. She was a girl that quite literally felt a calling at an early age when she thought she heard a supernatural voice call her name. Shortly thereafter, she was intermittently beset with chronic illnesses and remarkable bouts of healing. Whether or not you believe her claims of healing and divine intervention, the story of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is a riveting one all the same.

The First Intifada was an uprising in the Gaza Strip and West Bank that began in 1987 and ended in 1993. There are two quite different and contradictory historical perspectives on this conflict. Palestinians generally viewed the uprising as a popular resistance movement against military occupation and policies they experienced as oppressive. From the Israeli side, however, the actions taken were seen as a reasonable and legitimate response to protect citizens and soldiers from violence and to maintain order in territory under their control.

Discover the remarkable life of Butch Cassidy... Few children dream of growing up to rob banks and hold up trains, and Butch Cassidy was no exception. His transformation from an idealistic ranch hand to one of the most legendary outlaws of the American West was a slow, steady slide into a life of crime, shaped by choices that seemed small at the time but would alter the course of his entire existence.

The events which took place on a bitterly cold morning near Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890, represent the last acts in the series of bloody conflicts that were carried out between White settlers and Native Americans over a period of more than 200 years. These deaths of several hundred people of the Lakota tribe at the hands of soldiers from the US 7th Cavalry have also become symbolic of the often violent subjugation of Native American culture.

In the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) secretly planned, supported, and funded two coups: one in Guatemala and one in Iran. This was the height of the Cold War, and both deposed governments were suspected of leaning to the left and favoring closer ties with the Soviet Union, while the regimes that replaced them were more inclined to look favorably on the United States.

Known as one of the deadliest battles in history with its over one million casualties, the Battle of the Somme in 1916 is regarded by many as the ultimate war of attrition. Intended to bring about a swift end to the First World War, the British planned a grueling five-day bombardment of German forces, only to be thwarted at seemingly every turn. Bad weather, poor communication, inferior planning, hubris, and even betrayal led to the Battle of the Somme lasting longer than anyone had anticipated.

The American Revolution not only changed the continent of North America, but the ideas it represented would go on to change the world. The notion of a state where individual liberty was guaranteed to all citizens and where hereditary positions of power did not exist would directly lead to the French Revolution and to other movements around the world that sought to bring fundamental political and societal changes.

The Hundred Years War was a series of conflicts waged between England and France between 1337 and 1453. The war involved several generations of kings on both sides and was fought over a single issue: whether the English had the right to rule the kingdom of France. The Hundred Years War was an important element in the creation of modern Europe and in the definition of the national characters of both England and France. This audiobook tells the story of this long, complex, and fascinating conflict.

Pirates dominate movie box-office profits, they are theme park entertainment, and they occupy a place in popular culture that has outlasted the era when they originally ruled the seas. Contemporary audiences who are safe from the pistols and cutlasses of the men who sailed the Caribbean, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans to prey upon ships and claim their cargo may find it hard to reconcile the perceived glamour of Captain Jack Sparrow with the authentic bloodlust and greed of the real pirates who killed without conscience, and ravaged, bribed, and robbed their way into legend.

Kofi Annan stands out as one of the most pivotal figures of the early twenty-first century. As the secretary-general of the United Nations, he became an enduring icon and a voice for peace and freedom all over the world.

William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066, permanently changing the landscape of the English countryside and the course of English history. No one debates his importance; whether the influence was good or bad is a much more involved conversation. To understand English history over time, it is important to understand the transition from Anglo-Saxon history of the country to the Anglo-Norman control that existed until approximately the 15th century.

Discover the remarkable life of George Armstrong Custer... George Armstrong Custer is remembered for his last stand—that fateful day at the Little Bighorn when he and his unit were caught in an ambush that would end their lives. But Custer's story was much more than that single moment of catastrophe. From a mischievous farm boy in Ohio to a struggling West Point cadet, Custer lived a life of constant drama. He became the Union's youngest general, a daring Civil War hero who rode fearlessly into battle with his signature golden locks flowing behind him.

When World War I began in August 1914, the British confidently predicted that it would be "over by Christmas." In Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II told his soldiers that they would be "home before the leaves fall." But by late December, it was clear not only that the war was far from over, but also that this would be a more destructive and deadly conflict than any that had come before. On the Western Front, British troops faced the Germans across two opposing lines of trenches.

The man that history came to know by the name of Trotsky has the well-established legacy of being one of the most mysterious of all the cast and characters involved with the Russian Revolution. If the Russian Revolution was a Shakespearean tragedy, Trotsky would undoubtedly be cast into the role of an Othello or King Lear type figure who means well but seems to hamstring himself with his never-ending ideological speculation and theorizing.

Discover the remarkable life of Chester A. Arthur... Chester A. Arthur is not a name that immediately comes to mind when one thinks of great American presidents. He is, in many ways, the forgotten man of the White House, and most Americans would probably struggle to place him, let alone recall what he actually did. And yet his story is remarkable and, in many ways, surprising.

The State of Israel was founded in conflict, and in the first ten years of its existence, it was involved in two major wars with its Arab neighbors. The First Arab-Israeli War began almost the moment that the new state was announced in May 1948. Although it barely had time to create armed forces, somehow Israel survived a simultaneous invasion by armies from four Arab states during that conflict. In 1956, Israel found itself at war again, this time fighting alongside Britain and France, who had launched an invasion of Egypt after fears that the Suez Canal might be closed.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 marked a number of significant historical turning points. It saw the end of the last vestige of the Roman Empire, which had been founded more than 1,400 years before, and marked the beginning of a period of dominance for the growing Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, this moment marked the end of the Middle Ages in Europe and the beginning of the Renaissance, as the fall of Constantinople was directly linked to both these events.

As the daughter of a decorated general in the Imperial Russian army, Alexandra Kollontai was a member of the elite from birth. From that comfortable perch, she might easily have lived out her days in the drawing rooms and social circles of St. Petersburg's upper classes. Instead, she devoted her life to tearing that world apart.

Cyrus II of Persia was one of the greatest leaders that the world had ever known, he was the one in whose footsteps other empire builders would follow. From Alexander the Great to countless Roman emperors and Ottoman sultans - it was the mighty shoes of Cyrus that they all attempted to fill.More than merely a successful conqueror, Cyrus the Great is known just as much for being a great liberator as he is known for his conquests. He was even credited in the Bible as the one who freed the Jews from their long-held Babylonian exile.

Alexandra Feodorovna was one of the most tragic figures of the 20th century. Born in the wrong time, giddy with power, married to a man who ruled one-sixth of the world, she was murdered with her family in 1918.