Browsing: Crime

A Brief History On August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan fired shots at Vladimir I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, wounding him.  Had Lenin died at this time and not six years later, history might well have been different.  The fairer sex has sometimes turned to violence throughout history, either in domestic situations, for political reasons, in war or for idealistic purposes.  Here 10 such murderous women are listed, in no particular order.   Digging Deeper 10. Fanny Kaplan, Assassin. Her real name was Feiga Roytblat, and she was Jewish socialist revolutionary in Russia.  Already in…

A Brief History This article presents a timeline of weaponry. Digging Deeper into Ancient History Digging Deeper into Medieval History On January 23, 971, with deadly fire from their crossbows, troops of the Chinese Song Dynasty managed to defeat the War Elephant Corps of the Southern Han Kingdom. On July 20, 1304, the forces of King Edward I of England successfully took Stirling Castle during the First War of Scottish Independence. On August 26, 1346, at the Battle of Crecy, English archers proved the superiority of the English longbow over the combination of armored knights and crossbowmen fielded by the French.  There have…

A Brief History On August 24, 1349, the Black Death broke out in the Prussian town of Elbing in Northern Germany.  This horrifying illness became synonymous with death in the Middle Ages!  Beginning in the fifth century and ending with the death of Richard III in the fifteenth century, the Middle Ages in Europe are sometimes referred to as the Medieval period.  People in Medieval Europe had an average life expectancy of somewhere in the 30s-40s, far less than our own today.  This article presents 10 ways people died during this time period.  Some of the deaths were common; others rather unconventional. Digging Deeper 10.  Infection from a Dead Man’s Bite! A Viking earl by the name…

A Brief History On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the Louvre in Paris, stole perhaps the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  The theft created an international stir, and when the thief was caught two years later as he attempted to sell the painting to an Italian museum, he was treated as a national hero in Italy.  He only served six months in jail.  Every once in a while a famous or important object is stolen, or the circumstances of a theft make the crime notable.  Here 10 of the most notorious…

A Brief History On August 20, 1940, communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico by agents of Joseph Stalin.  The murder weapon was an ice axe, not something you usually see in Mexico City!  People have been killing other people since Cain slew his own brother Abel, and they have gotten quite creative at it in the meantime.  This article lists 10 of the more unusual murder weapons or techniques employed over the years, for example, back when the author of this article was a police officer, he investigated a murder in which a son killed his father by purposely dropping an air…