Somewhere between 108-180 A.D., one of the most famous Roman legions disappeared from history. The Legio IX Hispania was recruited by Pompey the Great in Spain around 50 B.C. It fought under Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars. It served with Octavian in his civil war with Marc Antony. In Read more…
Artemisia was a Greek queen who sided with Emperor Xerxes when he invaded Greece in the Persian Wars. She provided a few ships for his navy and captained one of them herself. Before the Battle of Salamis, she was the only one of Xerxes’ captains to argue against Read more…
On Sept. 28, 1918 an incident happened on the Western Front in France that changed the course of history. For the worse. Private Henry Tandey was a soldier in the British army and his unit was tasked with capturing the French town of Marcoing. Tandey was a decorated veteran, Read more…
Johnny Clem ran away from home to join the Union Army in the Civil War. He hooked up with the 22nd Michigan Infantry which adopted him as a mascot and drummer boy. Drummer boys were common in the war. They used their drums to relay orders to the men. Read more…
Alfred Nobel made a lot of money perfecting the blowing up of things. He came from a family of inventors. His father invented plywood. His brothers started the Russian oil industry. Alfred was not a happy man. He suffered from migraines, depression, and angina (for which he ironically took Read more…
The Turtle Ships were used in the Seven Year War (1592-1599) between Japan and Korea. Although they had existed before 1592, Admiral Yi Sun-Shin improved the ship and used it to defeat the Japanese navy in several battles. The ships, called “kobukson” by the Koreans, have been called the Read more…
John Paul Jones had already made a name for himself before his signature battle. His Ranger was part of the fledgling American navy. In 1778, he had conducted some daring and well-publicized raids on the British coast. In 1779, he came into port in France and was given the Read more…
The youngest of the wonders is the lighthouse in the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. It was built around 250 B.C. It stood 380 feet tall which made it only behind the great pyramids as the tallest structure on Earth. It was dedicated to Zeus Soter (the deliverer). It had Read more…
This was a 110 foot statue of the god Helios that was located somewhere in the harbor of Rhodes. It was probably on a pedestal near the entrance. It almost surely did not straddle the entrance, as is sometimes depicted. It was made of bronze and took about twelve Read more…
The temple was built as a tomb for a Persian satrap named Mausolus. It was located in what is today southwestern Turkey. It was completed around 353 B.C. by his wife Artemisia. It was made of white marble and was huge, possibly as tall as 45 stories. The Read more…