Tsar of all the Russias, emperor and autocrat by divine right, Nicolas II married his cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1864, who converted to Orthodoxy and took the name of Alexandra Fiodorovna. During the war, rumors multiplied that the Empress would rule the country in secret, organizi
This is the story of a family who settled on the throne of a principality that seemed destined to disappear, and ended up reigning over a sixth of the Earth. During the three centuries that their reign lasted, the Romanovs succeeded in enlarging the Russian Empire by an average of 50,000 square kilo
In 1890, Melville Macnaghten, who had been involved in the investigation, took over as director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Scotland Yard. According to him, the Ripper is the author of only five murders:those of M. A. Nichols, A. Chapman, E. Stride, C. Eddowes and M. J. Kelly,
In 1890, the Salvation Army revealed that 30,000 people, out of about six million inhabitants of London, were prostitutes. In 1889, 160,000 people were imprisoned for alcoholism, 2,297 committed suicide and 2,157 were found dead in slums, streets or parks. Almost 5% of the population suffered from n
The squalid streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields were often the only home of women who could not afford the few pennies a room in the doss-houses cost. pensions of very low category, with dirty and collective rooms that had to be paid for in advance. At the time of their deaths, Mary Ann Nichols
The Tenth Crime of Whitechapel. Engraving by Fortuné Méaulle published in 1891 in the Illustrated Journal • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS London is at the end of the 19th century the largest city in the western world. Capital of an empire on which the sun never sets, it embodies the omnipotence of Great Bri
In Ekaterinburg, the royal family lodged in the Ipatiev villa, surrounded by a palisade so high that from inside you could not see the tops of the trees growing outside. A few days after the arrival of the family members, the jailers paint the tiles of their rooms white. It is in this house that in
Geologist Alexander Avdonin, born in Yekaterinburg, teamed up with Russian filmmaker Geli Ryabov in the 1970s to find the burial place of the Romanovs. Ryabov, who had worked in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, had access to classified documents providing reliable leads. A 1926 publication d
When in June 1950 North Korea invaded the South, it virtually conquered the entire peninsula. Unable to accept a new communist success after those of 1949 (the announcement of the Soviet atomic bomb and the seizure of power by Mao Zedong in China), the United States entrusted General MacArthur, the
The pizza maker. Illustration by F. Palizzi. 1858 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In 1889, Humbert Ist , King of Italy, and his wife, Margaret of Savoy, make an official visit to Naples. As they walk through the streets of the city center, they are intrigued by the smell that emanates from certain bakeries.
Discovery of Nat Turner. Illustration from the Encyclopedia of Virginia, by William Henry Shelton (1840-1932) • WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Slavery in the American South paints the picture of a brutal and inhumane system, where the plantation masters seemed to maintain control of the situation and bring r
Britains suffrage movement is a reflection of a broader movement:suffragettes marching in New York in this 1912 photograph On Friday, August 3, 1832, a very special petition was discussed in the British Parliament:that of Mary Smith, of Stanmore, who argued that, paying the same taxes and being
The front page of the Petit Journal of July 12, 1914 reconstructs the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, François-Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo, which will precipitate the First World War • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS It all started on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo with the assassinatio
Marlon Brando in The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola (1972) • DR Mafia films are almost a cinematic genre in their own right. It is above all American directors, especially of Italian origin, who are at the origin of the most famous productions. The imaginary of the mafia that has spread acros
Portrait of Gabriel Jogand-Pagès, known as Léo Taxil, born in Marseilles in 1854 and died in Sceaux in 1907. In the background, the reception of an apprentice on an engraving in a history of Freemasonry published in 1843 • ISTOCK Complete Revelations on Freemasonry :it was under this “sensationa
Portrait of Jane Dieulafoy by Eugène Pirou • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / EUGENE PIROU Two Frenchmen, on their way to Susa, crossed Persia in 1885. One of them was called Marcel Dieulafoy, whom the French government commissioned to carry out excavations in this former capital of the Persian Empire. His c
The Battle of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805, a painting painted in 1810 by François Gérard, is one of the emblematic works of the Battles Gallery of the Palace of Versailles • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Nearly two and a half million young people served in Napoleons army, which fought battles across Europe
Long-term history, in its motionless slowness, sometimes exasperates men stuck in everyday life, but when the event arises, it swoops down by surprise, like a bird of prey on its prey. It is already too late. The defeat of 40, which could be described as a “debacle”, belongs to these humiliating cat
Breakthrough at Sedan:German panzers cross the Ardennes in May 1940 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS From September 3, 1939 until May 10, 1940, the phoney war, a non-war, put the French people to sleep in a strange atmosphere. The French general staff awaits the German attack, imprisoned in a defensive conce
French refugees on the exodus route, June 19, 1940 • WIKEMEDIA COMMONS “There was no more school, it was good, but mum and my big brother looked scared. […] On June 5, mom put us all in the car when she didnt even have her drivers license. […] Me, I wanted to take my dolls, but we didn’t have ti
The Conjuração Baiana is among the so-called Nativist Rebellions that took place between the 17th and 18th centuries in Brazil. By Me. Cláudio FernandesFrom the mid-seventeenth century, with the colonial system already set up in its mercantile and slave-like structure, Brazil had to face a series o
In the southeast of Algeria, in the middle of the Sahara desert and near the border with Libya and Mali, there is a large mountainous plateau called Tassili n’Ajjer (literally plateau of the rivers ), located at more than 1,000 meters of altitude. The place, which covers an area of 72,000 square
Beneath a light, frivolous, whimsical exterior, whose chronicle has above all retained the earthiness of character and an overflowing gallantry, Henri IV therefore reveals himself to be a politician. In a vast country delivered for three decades to anarchy, he immediately showed a concern to lower t
Belogradchik is a small town located in the extreme north-west of Bulgaria (its name precisely means little white town ), in the foothills of the Balkan mountains. There are the so-called Belogradchik Rocks , which extend over an area of 90 square kilometers and reach 200 meters in height. It i