Who discovered evolution? Who discovered the Amazon? Who discovered psychoanalysis? Who discovered the Rings of Saturn? Who discovered DNA? Who discovered the Pacific Ocean? This fascinating book captures in chronological order major advances in science and world exploration side by side.
Inventors have been inventing since time began, but which inventions do we value the most? A recent poll put the bicycle at number one on the basis that it is a simple, ecologically sound means of transport, and universally useful. It was seen as the best thing since sliced bread – except that sliced bread is a much more recent innovation than the bicycle; it was invented in 1927.
The great Renaissance artist Michelangelo loved young men. In 1532 he began a courtship with the love of his life. But Tommaso Cavalieri came from a distinguished, conventional Roman family and was shocked by the artist’s passion. Michelangelo’s unrequited love profoundly affected his art, and legend has it that Christ’s face in the Sistine Chapel is Cavalieri’s.
The final phase of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France coincided with the reign of England’s most charismatic king – Henry V. Within that final phase came the most famous battle of the war, the Battle of Agincourt. For the English the confrontation between the two armies in this single battle came to symbolize everything it means to be English.
On 26 September 1960, an estimated 70 million Americans watched John Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the first ever televised presidential debate. Nixon perspired heavily and appeared unshaven while Kennedy was immaculate and composed with a California suntan. Kennedy had found his perfect medium and in future he was to use it to great effect.
He didn’t realize it at the time, but in the late 1860s, David Livingstone had disappeared and was presumed dead. He had been in Central Africa and out of touch with the world for 5 years. In November 1871, Henry Morton Stanley mounted an expedition to find him. Read about the famous encounter between Stanley and Livingstone along with other famous chance encounters that changed the world.
Anne Boleyn’s meteoric rise from complete obscurity to the dizzy heights of the English throne was followed by an equally swift journey to the Tower of London. Accused of plotting to kill the King, Anne was no murderer. Her real crime was that she failed to produce a male heir for Henry VIII. In the topsy turvy world of the Tudors, Anne was certain to lose her head.
In many relationships we know a great deal about a friendship from one participant’s point of view and much less from the other’s. Because Plato wrote and Socrates did not, we know a great deal about what Plato thought of Socrates, but we know absolutely nothing about what Socrates thought of Plato.
There have been many instances across the centuries of people’s encounters with God. Often these are intensely personal private experiences that powerfully influence and often transform individual lives. Occasionally profound spiritual experiences remake communities and lead to the emergence of a new religion it certainly happened to Moses, Buddha and Mohammed.
Empress Josephine grew up in a well off, white Creole, sugar-plantation-owning family in Martinique. But a hurricane destroyed the plantation along with her family’s fortunes. In 1795 she met Napoleon Bonaparte and a legendary romance developed. Her hair was dark and silky, her voice was low and beautifully modulated. Napoleon need no encouragement and they married in 1796.
Read about The Brighton Trunk Murder in Barbaric Murders along with many other gruesome real-life stories of child victims, lady-killers and bodies in boxes.
20 April 1999, Columbine High School, Colorado, USA. Lunchtime. Enter Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold armed with shotguns. Pumping bullets into two classmates they left one dead and the other fighting for his life. They went on the rampage through the school leaving in their wake a trail of bloody death and destruction.
Infamous murderers, their deeds horrifying yet intriguing, have always inspired a strange fascination. Their crimes repulse us, yet the more heinous the act, the more we crave information, and ultimately we elevate the perpetrator to celebrity status. The names of the often random and completely innocent victims are not always so easily recalled.
Conflict and warfare is perpetual in the world today. It has always been like that. The history of the human race is the history of conflict. Conquest and glory versus death and destruction. Who takes us to war and why? This book traces world history through the conflicts that changed the world.