Context: Developed by the UK's Landship Committee to break the western front trenches, early tanks from the Mark I to Mark V evolved rapidly. Powered by low-horsepower engines, early models required four crew members just to steer and reached top speeds of only 6-9 km/ph. Mechanical failures, unsprung track rollers, and engine overheating under heavy load caused frequent breakdowns on the battlefield,.
Context (From Reddit): Sakamoto Ryōma (aka The Cowboy Samurai) was an influential politician and samurai during the Edo Period who advocated for the westernization of Japan. As an extension of his beliefs, Ryōma’s typical outfit consisted of a traditional kimono and his katana along with leather cowboy boots and a Smith & Wesson Model 2 revolver.
On March 9, 1866, several assassins were sent to silence Ryōma for his opposition to the Tokugawa Shogunate. Ryōma was warned by an employee of the inn he was staying (who would later become his wife), and managed to grab his revolver just as the assassins arrived. Unprepared for a gunfight, one assassin was killed and the rest driven off or wounded by Ryōma, who escaped. Unfortunately, he would be successfully assassinated a year later, just a few months before the overthrow of the shogunate.
Context: During WW2 Alan Turing was essential to the efforts to break the Nazi Enigma code. In 1952 the British government chemically castrated him for being gay, in 1954 he took his life.
Context: Martin Luther had issues with the papacy and their ways. Writing a list of ninety-five theses which he posted on the door of a church starting the reformation and leading to around 17 million Europeans dying in religious wars over the following centuries.
Context: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Ponte y Palacios Blanco also known as Simón Bolívar was a revolutionary figure and namesake for the country of Bolivia.
The Victorian Era is named after Queen Victoria and her depressing clothing choices.
Caesar Salad is named after a Mexican Italian chef, Caesar Cardini. Who is well known for overseeing the Roman Republics collapse into an empire.
Context: The famous Cleopatra is just Cleopatra VII i.e the 7th Cleopatra of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
The other ones are
Cleopatra I Syra: A Seleucid princess who married Ptolemy V. After her husband's death, she became regent of Egypt for their young son, Ptolemy VI.
Cleopatra II: Daughter of Cleopatra I and Ptolemy V. She became queen alongside her brother and husband, Ptolemy VI, and later married their younger brother, Ptolemy VIII. She became one of the central figures in the dynasty's long and extremely violent family conflicts.
Cleopatra III: Daughter of Cleopatra II and Ptolemy VI. She became queen alongside her uncle and stepfather, Ptolemy VIII, and later ruled with her own sons. Her rivalry with her mother, Cleopatra II, contributed to another civil war within the Ptolemaic family.
Cleopatra IV: Daughter of Cleopatra III and Ptolemy VIII. She briefly became queen of Egypt after marrying her brother, Ptolemy IX , but was soon pushed aside when her mother arranged for Ptolemy IX to marry her sister Cleopatra Selene. She later went to Syria and became queen there.
Cleopatra V Tryphaena: A later Ptolemaic queen who married Ptolemy XII. She was probably the mother of Cleopatra VII, although the exact details of Cleopatra VII's parentage are debated. She disappeared from the historical record around 69/68 BCE from what I understand she was posioned.
Cleopatra VI Tryphaena: This Cleopatra is the most uncertain of the others (and kinda a rabbit hole in itself lol). Ancient sources and later historians have disagreed about exactly who she was and even whether she was a separate person from Cleopatra V. She is generally associated with the political crisis that led to her daughter Berenice IV temporarily taking the throne from Ptolemy XII.
Context: The Massacre of Glencoe took place on February 13, 1692, in the Scottish Highlands. Government soldiers led by Captain Robert Campbell slaughtered 38 members and associates of Clan MacDonald after living among them as welcomed guests for nearly two weeks, an act that violated traditional Highland hospitality.
Context: During Australia’s early colonial period the colony ran on a barter system with rum as the main commodity traded. Governor William Bligh (of Bounty fame) was sent to the colony with instructions to clamp down on the rum trade. This along with other issues led to Australia's only military coup - against the governor by the New South Wales Corps who were becoming rich off the trade.
Context: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, as South Africa was transitioning toward democracy, brutal political violence erupted between supporters of the African National Congress (ANC) and the IFP, Inkatha Freedom Party, a Zulu-nationalist political party led historically by Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
When the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) investigated this violence, it uncovered extensive evidence of what became known as the "Third Force." The commission revealed that the apartheid state's security forces had covertly funded, armed, and trained elements within the IFP to fight the ANC. The regime's goal was to destabilize the liberation movement, show black inability to function without whites at the helm and weaken the push for a democratic transition.
Context: Dutch prime minister Jan-Peter visited Eindhoven and attempted to skate.
Context: This one is pretty self explanatory I think. The British attacked (and still do) a lot of places, also the Scottish are technically British so they focus on the English aspect.
Context: After Prince Pedro married his wife Constance, he fell in love with Inês and took her as his mistress. Disapproving of his son's adultery, King Afonso IV is said to have banished Inês to Albuquerque (Spain) in 1344. Following Constance's death in 1349, Inês returned to Portugal and lived openly with Pedro. Within the coming years they would have 3 children, all the while King Afonso attempted to arrange a second marriage for his son, but Pedro refused.
Pedro also developed close relationships with Inês's brothers, Fernando Ruiz de Castro and Álvaro Pires de Castro. The brothers became increasingly influential in public affairs, causing intrigue among rival factions at the Portuguese court and threatening Portugal's neutrality in the Castilian Civil War. King Afonso IV grew concerned about the power the Castros wielded over the Infante and ordered Inês's assassination. Afonso's knights, Pêro Coelho, Álvaro Gonçalves, and Diogo Lopes Pacheco, travelled to the Monastery where Inês was residing and decapitated her in front of her small children on 7 January 1355.
Pedro would become king in 1357 and sought out Inês' killers, who had gone into exile in Castile. Pedro managed to capture Coelho and Gonçalves and ordered them to be executed by ripping their hearts out. Around 1361 he admitted to have secretly married Inês in 1353 (this would however turn out to be a lie in 1385 as the pope denied Pedro’s secret request). Pedro commissioned a tomb for Inês, and later one for himself, in the Alcobaça Monastery. Before her entombment, Pedro then ordered the body of his beloved Inês to be placed on a throne, adorned with the diadem and royal robes, and required all the nobility of the kingdom to approach and kiss the hem of her garment, granting her that homage which she had not received in her life.
Context: The Vultus Trifrons, or Trifacial Trinity, was a bizarre type of Christian iconography that first appeared in the 12th century. It took the Holy Trinity and grotesquely depicted it as a singular figure (typically Jesus) with three faces merged together To symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one entity. This depiction would be banned by Urban VIII in 1628, as it was considered heretical, too reminiscent of pagan depiction of gods, and generally disturbing to look at.
A Vultus Trifrons:
Context: On February 1842, during the First Opium War, Prince Yijing, cousin of Emperor Daoguang and the Commander of the offensive against British occupation in eastern Zhejiang, went to a temple in Hangzhou and asked for a fortune stick (kau chim). On the stick it said some riddles about "tigers" (不遇虎头人一唤，全家谁敢保平安).
In Chinese, people use the word "Yang Ren (洋人)" to represent foreigners. The word "洋" (Yang) means something foreign or related to the ocean, but also has the same pronunciation and similar structure of the word "羊" (sheep).
Inspired by the fortune stick and the Tibetan reinforcements that wore tiger hides in battles, Yijing had a genius idea that he can use "Tigers" to eat the "Yang (sheep)" for breakfast. Therefore, he came up with the strategy called "Five tigers ambush the Yang (五虎扑洋之计)".
The battle plan is as follows:
The timing is very important. According to traditional Chinese beliefs, he chose the time to commence the counteroffensive on year 1842 (Year of the tiger), March (Month of the tiger) the 10th (Day of the tiger), at 4 in the morning according to Chinese calendar (Hour of the tiger). For the commander, he hand picked Duan Yongfu, a general who was born in the Year of the tiger. Therefore all five "tigers" are set for the plan. In the opening phase, the Tibetan soldiers who wore tiger hides would be the assault force to eat up the force of "yang" by force of surprise.
Context: In the early 18 hundreds the Napoleonic was on going. Denmark was at the time a naval force to be reckoned with. Although not exactly a threat to the British fleet, the British were worried that Denmark would be occupied by the French, which could potentially boost the size of the French fleet. This would in turn give the French a fleet that would allow them to take the British fleet head on. As a preemptive measure the British asked Denmark to hand over the majority of they vessels. However Denmark wanted to remain neutral in the war, and giving a large chunk of ships to one side would definitely have made the French upset. Thus they denied the British request. Following this the British decided to destroy the potential threat. This ended with the 1807 bombardment of Copenhagen. The Danish fought back, but in the end handed over a bunch of ships, after they had also lost a handful.
Oak trees are the common tree for construction of large ships, in the age of sails. Oak trees are however only harvested after around 120 years of growing and maintenance. And the Danes had no were near the amount of forest or trees at hand to rebuild the navy. That's why they planted the trees that a now known as "flåde eg" or "the fleets oak"
Context: Prior to construction, the tower was protested by "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" saying
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection ... of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower ... To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years ... we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
It was intended to be a temporary structure taken down after the Exposition Universelle, but after being allowed to stay it eventually became a key point of pride in France.
