The Battle of Verdun, one of the most grueling and catastrophic battles of World War I, came to an end on December 18, 1916. After ten months of relentless combat, the second French counteroffensive successfully pushed German forces back by two to three kilometers,…
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On the morning of December 6, 1917, Halifax, Nova Scotia, experienced one of the most devastating events in Canadian history. A collision between two ships in Halifax Harbour led to an explosion of catastrophic proportions, killing over 1,900 people, injuring 9,000 others, and destroying…
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On November 11, 1921, in a solemn ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, honoring an unidentified American serviceman who had died in World War I. The tomb, situated prominently on a hill overlooking Washington,…
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On November 5, 1917 (New Style; October 23 by Russia’s Old Style calendar), Vladimir Lenin pressed his case for an immediate armed uprising, transforming months of revolutionary agitation into a concrete timetable. Bolshevik power in Petrograd had grown rapidly since the summer: factory committees…
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The morning of October 6, 1923, marked the end of an era—and the symbolic birth of another. For nearly five years, foreign troops had occupied Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), the ancient capital of empires, following the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I. That day,…
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The Second Battle of the Somme, commencing on August 21, 1918, marked a significant phase of the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which ultimately led to the end of World War I. This battle, fought in the Somme region of France, was a vital part…
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On August 13, 1913, Harry Brearley, a pioneering metallurgist hailing from England, added some chromium to a steel mixture and changed industry and home appliances forever. The mixture he produced made a strong metal that was both resistance to corrosion and rust, stainless steel. …
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On August 4, 1914, the contours of what would become the First World War changed dramatically as three pivotal nations made their positions unmistakably clear. In response to Germany’s invasion of neutral Belgium, both Belgium and the British Empire formally declared war on the…
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In the midst of the First World War—a conflict that had engulfed the globe and pitted empires against each other—King George V of the United Kingdom took a decisive step to distance the British monarchy from its German roots. On July 17, 1917, he…
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At 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, whistles blew across the British trenches in northern France, marking the start of what would become the single bloodiest day in British military history. The First Day of the Battle of the Somme—a major Allied offensive against…
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