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.

As soldiers stormed into houses, rounding up young men, people were more afraid than ever.

After Francis Gary Powers was convicted as a spy, in Moscow, Wolfgang Vogel negotiated the exchange of Rudolf Abel for Powers. His negotiating partner...

Ordered to travel to London, to stand trial for treason, Cardinal Wolsey stops at Leicester Abbey in November of 1530. He dies there, soon after his a...

La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, urges people to fight internal tyranny. See the English translation and listen to a spellbinding performa...

On the South Island of New Zealand, in a town called Oamaru, we can find a fantastic sculpture created by Thomas Clapperton, a famous Scot.

Lord Merseys findings, following considerable evidence given at the wreck inquiry, attribute the loss of the Lusitania to the U-boats actions against ...

Xerxes, ruler of the Persian Empire, attempted to conquer Greece.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, has a very moving memorial to children lost in the war.

Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky (18781938) was responsible for executing Tsar Nicholas, his family and their closest helpers (including Doctor Botkin).

This WWI-era sign, along a road in the Belgian town of Ypres, signifies the profound losses sustained by residents of the town and the men who died fi...

As German invaders tried to take the territory in and around Ypres, Allies battled back to hold the Belgian town.

A disaster occurs, for captured Africans, when a water shortage aboard a slave ship results in the deliberate killing of people (whom the crew and shi...

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