Untimely Losses
This King learned the hard way not to look at the sky when the Norman archers were doing their work.
Harold Godswain
This American runner won the Olympic gold medal in his event, but the dictator of the host country refused to shake his hand.
Jesse Owens (Berlin 1936)
Both were misfits given to heavy drinking, but one burned Atlanta while the other laid siege to Richmond.
Sherman and Grant
The failure of heavy artillery to break the German lines of barbed wire led to one of the greatest slaughters of the Great War, witnessed by a young J.R.R Tolkien
The Somme (1916)
In this iconic hockey game, a rag-tag American team beat the undefeated USSR to win the Olympic gold medal.
Miracle on Ice
All he did was get angry about some eagles and jump over a wall.
Remus
At this ancient festival the winners received laurel wreaths.
Olympics
He was a clever Byzantine bureaucrat, and she was a circus performer with a taste for purple clothes.
Justinian and Theodora
Three hundred Spartans guarded a mountain pass against Persian invaders.
Thermopylae
Texas’ favorite bandit, his last words were “The world is spinning around.”
Sam Bass
Buried with full military honors, this casualty was replaced with a cane later stolen by the Texas Rangers.
Santa Anna's Leg
You might be a sports fan, but would you burn down the imperial city in support of your team the way these sports fans did?
You might be best friends, but are you borrow your best friend’s armor because he is not going into battle like he should, get killed because everyone wants to kill your best friend, and be avenged by your best friend best friends?
Achilles and Patroclus
An Austin farmer’s hogs broke into the French embassy, and that was the end of diplomacy.
Pig War
The bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, marking a turning point in the war in favor of the North.
Battle of Gettysburg
This Roman’s trip to the senate resulted in a stab in the back - or 23.
Julius Caesar
The battle from which a messenger ran all the way to Athens to declare their victory.
Battle of Marathon
This pair of lovers both committed suicide in the wake of Octavian’s victories.
Antony and Cleopatra
Julius Caesar’s battlefield reports from this campaign are still read today.
Conquets of Gaulle
Florentine faction who counted Dante as one of their own.
The White Guelphs
This man’s assassination in Bosnia sparked the First World War.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On an important Christian holiday, soldiers on the front lines in the First World War played football together.
The sight of her inspired him to the new life.
Dante and Beatrice
This battle claimed the life of a Byzantine emperor.
Adrianople
The fall of this city to the Ottoman Turks marks the end of the Roman Empire and the Medieval period.
Sack of Constantinople