Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution After the fall of the monarchy on 10 August 1792, the dethroned Queen was imprisoned in the Tower of the Temple, along with king Louis XVI, and their children. Nine months after her husband’s… Read More 16 October 1793: Marie Antoinette is beheaded
26 September 46 BC – Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to his mythical ancestor Venus Genetrix in accordance with a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus. Roman politician and general Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC of a patrician family, and rose through the political and military ranks of Republican Rome to… Read More 26 September 46 BC
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I. In September 1898, Elisabeth (also known as “Sisi”) travelled incognito to Geneva and took accommodation at Hotel Beau-Rivage, on the lake, where she had already stayed the previous year.… Read More 10 September 1898 – Empress Elisabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
August 28th is the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” Speech , given by Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963 at the historic “March on Washington.” King’s memorable, repeated use of that phrase was not included in the written version of the speech, in which he had consciously decided to omit it… Read More I Have a Dream
On August 24, in the year AD 79, Vesuvius erupted in one of the most catastrophic and famous eruptions of all time. Historians have learned about it from the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet, who was seventeen at the time, to the historian Tacitus. He was in… Read More 24 August 79 AD
Today is Ferragosto in Italy: it is a public holiday celebrated on 15 August, coinciding with the Catholic feast of the Assumption of Mary. The modern Italian name of the holiday comes directly from the Latin name: ” Feriae Augusti” (Holidays of Emperor Augustus), which were introduced by emperor Augustus in 18 BC. All the… Read More 15 August: “Feriae Augusti”
On 3 August 1492, the day after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus started his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean with a crew of 90 men and three ships— a larger carrack, the Santa María, and two smaller caravels, the Pinta and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Niña (“Girl”).… Read More Christopher Columbus
On 2 August 1980 a bomb exploded at the Central Railway Station of Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200. The attack was attributed to a neo- fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Groups), which always denied any involvement; other theories have been proposed, especially in correlation with the strategy… Read More 2 August 1980: Bologna Massacre
A few days ago I watched this film for the second time, and I liked it very much. I’m talking about “A Royal Affair”, a Danish film about the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark, his wife Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, and the royal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee. The story is set in… Read More A Royal Affair
From 1562 to 1598, France saw a series of bloody wars between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, called “the French Wars of Religion” , which ended with the Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598 by King Henry IV, a treaty that fostered religious tolerance. Nine years earlier, “le bon roi Henri” (the good king Henry)… Read More 25 July 1593: “Paris is worth a Mass”
