Portal:History

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History
History is the interpretation of past events, societies and civilisations. The term history comes from the Greek historia (ἱστορία ), "an account of one's inquiries," and shares that Etymology with the English word story. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica stated that "history in the wider sense is all that has happened, not merely all the phenomena of human life, but those of the natural world as well. It is everything that undergoes change; and as modern science has shown that there is nothing absolutely Static, therefore, the whole universe, and every part of it, has its history."

This month's featured article

Major-General Sir Isaac Brock KB (6 October 1769 – 13 October 1812) was a British Army officer and administrator. Brock was assigned to Canada in 1802. Despite facing desertions and near-mutinies, he commanded his regiment in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) successfully for many years. He was promoted to Major general, and became responsible for defending Upper Canada against the United States. While many in Canada and Britain believed war could be averted, Brock began to ready the army and Militia for what was to come. When the War of 1812 broke out, the populace was prepared, and quick victories at Fort Mackinac and Detroit crippled American invasion efforts.

Brock's actions, particularly his success at Detroit, earned him a Knighthood, membership in the Order of the Bath, accolades and the epithet "The Hero of Upper Canada". His name is often linked with that of the Native American leader Tecumseh, although the two men collaborated in person only for a few days. Brock died at the Battle of Queenston Heights, which was nevertheless a British victory.

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This month's featured picture

Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855). British lithograph published March 1855, after a water-colour by William Simpson, shows winter military housing under construction with supplies borne on soldiers' backs. A dead horse lies by the roadside partially buried in snow.
Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855). British lithograph published March 1855, after a water-colour by William Simpson, shows winter military housing under construction with supplies borne on soldiers' backs. A dead horse lies by the roadside partially buried in snow.

Did you know...

Horatia Nelson
Horatia Nelson

...that Horatia N. Thompson (pictured) was christened with Lord Nelson and Mrs Hamilton as Godparents and was later adopted by them as an Orphan, even though they were her Biological parents?

...that the 1609 Treaty of Antwerp was influenced by the writings of Hugo Grotius in the Mare Liberum, which was published at the insistence of the Dutch East India Company during the course of the treaty negotiations?

...that Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia let a soldier tasked with his execution take care of a cat?

...that, after driving the French Republicans from Italy, Russian Field-Marshal Alexander Suvorov managed to conduct a masterful flight across the snow-capped Alps?

...that George Rogers Clark was called the "Conqueror of the Northwest" because of his victorious Illinois campaign in the American Revolutionary War?

...that the Crown-cardinals of Austria, France, and Spain could exercise the Jus exclusivae during Papal conclaves from the 16th to 20th centuries?

...that some accounts regarding the fighting during the Battle of Bonchurch states that some of the female population of the Isle of Wight participated by firing arrows at the French troops?

...that the Mongol Empire, also known as the Mongolian Empire was the largest contiguous Empire in world History and for some time was the most feared in Eurasia?

...that the pioneers traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Great Basin using wagons, handcarts, and, in some cases, personally carrying their belongings. Their trail along the Platte River and over the Sweetwater River became known as the Mormon Trail?

...that when Mawewe, the putative king of Gazaland (in 19th-century Mozambique), played rough with the colonial Portuguese by demanding tribute and threatening to exterminate the Europeans if they refused to pay, Paiva de Andrade, then governor of Lourenço Marques, responded by sending a single rifle cartridge to Mawewe, saying that this would be the form his tribute would take?

...that the Muslim conquests (632–732), (Arabic: فتح ‎, Fataḥ, literally opening,) also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified political policy in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun (The Rightly Guided Caliphs) and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power?

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