The death of Mumtaz Mahal, the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, prompted her husband to construct the Taj Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal, whose name means ‘the Exalted One of the palace’, was originally…
On June 16th 1958, Hungarian Communist politician Imre Nagy was executed. Arrested after Soviet forces brought the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 to an end, Nagy was found guilty of treason in a secret trial and…
The Pig War border confrontation began when Lyman Cutlar shot a British-owned pig on San Juan Island. The archipelago of which San Juan Island is part lies between Washington State on the United States mainland…
On the 14th June 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the so-called Flag Resolution and adopted the stars and stripes as the flag of the United States. The day is now celebrated as Flag Day,…
Any suspect arrested in the USA must be informed of four key rights. ‘You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can, and will, be used against you in court of law. You…
On the 12th June 1942, Anne Frank received a diary as a thirteenth birthday present from her father. Barely three weeks later, Anne and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Her diary, which…
Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to death at a busy crossroads in Saigon. Quảng Đức’s self-immolation came in response to the persecution of Buddhists by the government under Diệm, who belonged to…
The Arab Revolt began fully on June 10th 1916 when Grand Sharif Hussein bin Ali, the guardian of the holy city of Mecca, ordered his troops to attack the Ottoman Caliphate’s garrison in the city….
Nero, the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, committed suicide. Nero was Augustus’ great-great grandson and was adopted by his great-uncle, Claudius, after he married his mother Agrippina the Younger. Following Claudius’ death in…
On the 8th June 1972 one of the most iconic photographs of the Vietnam War was taken of Phan Thị Kim Phúc, a nine-year-old girl from the South Vietnamese village of Trang Bang. In the…
In 1518 the English Cardinal Wolsey had negotiated the Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact that was signed by the twenty major European powers of the time. However, peace held for barely a year before…
The 6th June 1944 saw the largest seaborne invasion in history, when the Allied forces of the Second World War launched Operation Neptune – more commonly known as the D-Day landings. The amphibious landings in…
The first Orient Express train, known at the time as Express d’Orient, departed Paris. The Orient Express was created by Georges Nagelmackers, a wealthy Belgian and the founder of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits that…
On the 4th June 1913, suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was hit by King George V’s racehorse at the Epsom Derby after she stepped onto the track. She died four days later from a fractured skull…