Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite, 1964
On 26th April, 1964, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was born. In October of that year the country was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania (a portmanteau of…
Duel of the Mignons, 1578
During the French Wars of Religion, two factions developed at court. One loyal to Henry III, King of France (pictured on the left) and the other supporters of Henry, Duke…
French abolished slavery for the second time, 1848
On 26th August 1789, just over a month after the fall of the Bastille, the National Constituent Assembly adopted The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.…
Alfred Hitchcock died, 1980
On 29th April 1980, the ‘Master of Suspense’, film director Alfred Hitchcock died of renal failure at his home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles. Just a few months earlier, he had…
Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed, 1803
In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France. One of the articles required that the French give up all their…
First World`s Fair, 1851
On 1st May 1851, Queen Victorian opened the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, in Hyde Park, London. Unlike the 1844 French Industrial Exposition, the Great…
Hudson`s Bay Company incorporated, 1670
In 1668 two English ships sailed for Hudson Bay to evaluate trade opportunities in the area. The expedition was instigated by two French fur traders called Médard des Groseilliers and…
Student Revolt in Paris, 1968
In March 1968, a group of radical students at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris demonstrated against what they saw as the oppressively paternalistic rules under which the…
Haymarket Affair, 1886
In the late nineteenth-century workers’ groups around the world agitated for an eight hour working day. To this end, in October 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions…
Meeting of the French Estates-General, 1789
The deepening financial crisis in France at the end of the eighteenth century led the king to appoint a series of finance ministers. Two of these Charles Alexandre de Calonne…