Showing results by author "Hourly History" in All Categories

Discover the remarkable history of the Arab Spring... The Arab Spring began unexpectedly on December 17, 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit seller in the city of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, committed suicide in a horrifying and public way. He doused himself in flammable liquid and then set himself on fire. Bouazizi had been driven to this act of despair, it was said, by constant harassment from local representatives of the regime of President Ben Ali, who had been the autocratic ruler of Tunisia for more than twenty years.

Rosa Parks was a quiet, dignified African-American woman who, in a world of injustice, decided to politely defy a racist policy. In doing so, she ignited a fire in the soul of a community whose "cup of endurance" would permit not even one more comparatively small injustice. Her case resulted in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, wherein some 40,000 African-Americans crippled the Montgomery transportation industry with their non-violent protest of the racist policy that mandated Parks to give up her seat for white riders.

Few figures in Irish history are as well known as James Joyce. He was born into hardship in a country mired in political conflict, but rather than allow himself to get bogged down, he used his experiences to create some of the finest pieces of modernist literature to date.

While names like Nero, Caligula, Hadrian, and Constantine grab all the attention with their exploits, Marcus Aurelius tends to sit more in the historical background of the Roman Empire. In many ways, he is a lesser known emperor even though his written works have stood the test of time. Marcus, a prolific writer and formidable scholar, was perhaps the first to fulfill Plato’s dream of the philosopher king.

Pierre-August Renoir, leader of the 19th-century Impressionist movement, spent his entire life perfecting his style. Rejected for decades, he depended on friends for a place to stay and money for painting supplies. Renoir lived in poverty until his 40's, and when he was finally discovered and hailed as a great artist, his health began to fail him. Still, Renoir never gave up his passion for painting. His need to create beauty was the driving force of his life, and throughout rejections and deteriorating health, Renoir retained an optimism that is reflected in his paintings.

Jackson Pollock was without a doubt one of the twentieth century’s most controversial painters. He started out painting abstracts in the style of Pablo Picasso but soon branched out, establishing the “drip” method, which entails dripping or flinging paint directly onto the canvas. For this, he was both praised and demonized; still, he persisted on his own chosen path.

In the early hours of June 17, police were called to the massive Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, DC. On the sixth floor, in the offices where McGovern’s campaign was being planned and controlled, they discovered and arrested five burglars. This event wasn’t immediately a major news story—in fact, many newspapers ignored it completely—but over the next two years, the attempted break-in at the Watergate complex would become the heart of the biggest political scandal ever to hit America and the direct cause of a constitutional crisis.

John Wycliffe was known as the “Morning Star” of the Reformation. His doctrines of strict adherence to the Bible and his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the Catholic Church would be the spark that would later ignite the fires of the Protestant Reformation.

It is a verifiable fact that the Apostle Paul was one of the most prolific writers of the New Testament, making him one of the founders of the Christian religion that we know today. Although he came on the scene after Jesus Christ, it could be argued that Saint Paul played the second biggest role in the history of Christianity. This is rather fascinating, considering the fact that he began his career as one of the biggest persecutors of the faith.

The German Revolution of 1918-1919 told the story of a bruised nation attempting to overcome its military defeat at the hands of enemies who wanted to punish Germany for starting the war. Because Germany was caught in the vise of such irreconcilable political philosophies between the left and the right, the Weimar Republic, although it was the ruling power following the German Revolution, was destined to have a doomed, short life in Germany’s tragic 20th-century history.

Sean Connery is still well remembered for his role in the epic James Bond series. Although we often picture him as a smooth, daring, and debonair agent, surviving all manner of incredible stunts, Sean Connery was more than just James Bond. His films were indeed action-packed, but so was his personal life.

Benito Mussolini was a figure that was both revered and dreaded. He climbed the ladder of power rapidly in Italian politics, and he was brought down just as fast. Mussolini wished to stir up a united front of nationalism within his people. But, in the end, the only thing he united was their hatred and contempt for him as a despotic leader. There were several twists and turns in the life of Benito Mussolini, and this book will take you through them all. Follow his astonishing rise and his dramatic fall.

King Edward VI, the only legitimate male heir of King Henry VIII, took his seat on the throne at the age of nine. His life would come to an end when he was only 15 years old, but the mark he would come to leave on England’s history has endured to this day. Edward VI led his country into a new age where the Church of England was no longer tied to the Catholic Church. Putting his efforts into spreading Protestantism throughout all of England, he continued his father’s work of freeing England from the Holy Roman Empire’s grasp.

The man that the world knows as Winston Churchill looms large on the stage of world history. Like some sort of colossus from antiquity, Churchill strides between two major epochs in the world, one foot planted in the glory days of the British Empire when the sun never set on history’s largest known conglomeration of imperial holdings, and the other planted firmly in the aftermath of World War Two, and a post-war order that saw that empire collapse, with Britain barely hanging on to its own sovereignty in the wake.

Discover the remarkable life of Geronimo...The legendary Geronimo led one of the last great Apache uprisings against American expansionism. The lands of the Apache tribe comprised what is today part of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, and Geronimo was one of the last who dared to stand up to the powers that encroached on the Native American way of life. In the end, even the cunning and might of Geronimo had to surrender to the wayward expansion of the west.

Wyatt Earp was one of the most famous lawmen that the Wild West ever produced. He was also one of the longest-lived. Considering the fact that he lived all the way up until his 80s while many of his contemporaries never made it out of their 30s, this in itself was quite a feat. Wyatt Earp’s good friend and sidekick Doc Holliday, for example, perished at 36. But even though Earp lived a long life, he was no stranger to danger. He was shot at more times than he could count, and there were plenty of people out there who wanted him dead.

This is the extraordinary story of how a king who once hid in the swamps became the man who saved Christian civilization in England. From his childhood pilgrimage to Rome to his deathbed vision of a united England, discover how King Alfred earned his place as the only English monarch ever called “the Great.” This is the life and legend of Alfred the Great in full.

The Mau Mau Rebellion took place in Kenya, beginning in 1952. A group of native Kenyan peoples, mostly from the Kikuyu tribe, rose up against their British colonizers, who had held the region since 1895. With a complicated story, it can be difficult to place the Mau Mau Uprising within the larger history of Kenyan nationalism and nationhood. Regardless of nuance, though, its importance in the history of Kenya, Africa, and British colonialism cannot be understated. This is the complete history of the Mau Mau Rebellion.

Golda Meir began her career as a grassroots activist whose tireless efforts helped ensure the creation of a Jewish homeland. As a diplomat and negotiator, she played a pivotal role in securing the recognition and funding that made the founding of Israel possible in 1948. She would go on to serve as the new nation’s foreign minister and, ultimately, as its prime minister—one of the first women in the world to hold such an office.

Seen by many as one of America’s greatest presidents, Harry S. Truman was, in many ways, an unexpected president. He came from a very undistinguished background and is, in fact, the only US president in recent history with the honor of being a college dropout. Despite what he may have lacked in formal education, Truman was a quick learner from the real-life experience he was given on the world stage. As president, he gets the credit for some major milestones in American policy. Here, in this book, we cover the dynamic life and powerful legacy of President Harry S. Truman in full.