World History Story Briefs

Whether it's people, places or events which fuel "the news," the fabric of our lives is impacted by world events. This collection features stories from ancient to modern times.

Napoleon's soldiers were digging the foundation of a fort when they found a huge black stone covered with inscriptions. Who could have believed it hel...

Alexander the Great had a way to keep the loyalty of conquered people: He respected their customs and traditions. Showing he meant what he said, he m...

After he was exchanged in a spy swap with Francis Gary Powers, Rudolf Abel returned to Russia. He lived there until his death in 1971.

Rudolf Abel was a Soviet spy, living in America for eight years, before an informer (his own assistant) blew Abel's cover when the informer defected i...

The Emperor Justinian once described Aquileia, in northern Italy, as “the greatest of all the towns in the West.”

For more than 700 years Russia, a nation rich in natural resources, has defended herself against invaders from other countries.

Russia, in the Age of Peter the Great, became a very different place when the Russian Tsar began to transform his country to make it more modern.

At first, Hitler believed that he could easily conquer the Soviet Union. Then he realized that was not possible.

In August of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact." Hitler never meant for that agreement to last.

Saadi (Sa'di) Shirazi - often referred to only by his first name - was a Persian poet who lived in the late-12th / early 13th centuries.

On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse successfully tests an electrical telegraph. So why did it take years longer to send the first message?

When Victoria's son Albert Edward (later King Edward VII) is Prince of Wales, he needs a home for himself and his new bride, Alexandra. The Queen buy...

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