Origins of the Quarantine
The Quarantine began in medieval times when Ragusa (Dubrovnik) started isolating people in the Lazareti. Initially a Trentine, it eventually became the Quarantena via Venice.
Category History
Porticoes of Bologna
It gets very hot and muggy in Bologna. The Bolognese covered their walkways for miles on end in endless porticoes to solve for this problem. These porticoes are now a UNESCO contender.
75th Anniversary of D-Day
This June 6th marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Two of the most difficult operations carried out on June 6th 1944 were the takeover of Pointe du Hoc and the landing of the first troops at Omaha Beach.…
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
During the Battle of Normandy (Normandie), a staggering 425,000 troops were killed, wounded or went missing. Roughly half of these were Allied troops and the other half German. The Allies also captured an additional 200,000 prisoners of war, whose fate…
A Not So Pedestrian Bridge (World War 1)
On the morning of June 25th 1914, Archduke Prince Franz Ferdinand, the heir-apparent of the mega Austro-Hungarian empire, arrived in Sarajevo to do what heir-apparents of mega-empires do – walk the bazaars, shop, while inaugurating a few monuments. Though there…
The Death March at Auschwitz
The largest of the SS concentration camps existed at the Auschwitz complex – a network of 2 large camps and 45 other satellite camps within a couple of miles of each other. The seed was sown at what is known…
From Virginia to Auschwitz
On July 24th, 1912, the first International Conference on Eugenics was held in London[1]. A veritable who’s who attended – from Winston Churchill to Alexander Graham Bell, to the famed author, H. G. Wells, who staunchly supported the “sterilization of…
Sarajevo Rose
It was 1993. Our dorm in India had just installed a 10 foot satellite dish to catch the US cable channels and it was welcome change from the 1.5 channels of State run Doordarshan and it’s melancholia. CNN had just become…
Beheading on the Bridge
Born in Damascus, near modern day Syria, a young prince of age 20, Abd al-Rahman and his family were overthrown as the ruling family in a revolt in 750 AD. The rebellion was led by the Abbasids who were ruthless…