St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre

About 450 years ago, on August 24, 1572 the capital of France literally drowned in rivers of blood that appeared on its streets on the eve of St. Bartholomew’s Day. A wave of violence swept through Paris, and later in other towns and villages. The carnage lasted for several weeks. St. Bartholomew’s night became a radical change in the religious wars in France and left an indelible mark in the minds of Protestants.
In the XVI century, Europe was torn by religious strife. Catholics fought against Protestants, although, both of them were Christians. But the Protestants did not recognize the saints, the angels, the cult of the Virgin. They did not worship icons and relics. Protestants did not have monks, and they did not give the clergy celibate. But the most important was the fact that Protestants refused to recognize the authority of the Pope. They preferred receiving divine grace directly from God, without the mediation of the Catholic clergy.
Many active participants of the religious wars of that time weren’t very religious. Most of them fought because of their friends, countrymen, their lords.
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Interesting about chimney sweeps

Chimney Sweeps’ Day is celebrated annually on May 1 in the UK. There is a grand colorful show, like a carnival, in Rochester, Kent. People smeared with soot are marching through the city, and then arrange a variety of games, contests, or acrobatic shows.
Why does this festival take place in Rochester? After all, this profession was not only very popular, but also demanded all over Europe. It turned out that four hundred years prior to 1900 a professional chimney sweeps holiday with a concert and a festive parade was held in this city. Chimney sweeps across England not only met the spring, but also celebrated their only day off. Over time, this cheerful holiday was forgotten.
Local businessman Gordon Newton was interested in history of his native land and revived the festival. Since 1981 the businessman spent his own money on the festivals. And then the city authorities took care of all the expenses because they saw that the festival attracted a lot of tourists from all over Europe. And now on May days Rochester turns into a fairy-tale city.
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Panama Canal – canal to link the oceans

Panama Canal is the only navigable canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was dug through the Isthmus of Panama for ten years, from 1904 to 1914. Since that time, the sea route from New York to San Francisco shortened more than doubled, from 22 500 km to 9000 km. The total length of the channel is 81.6 km. Since 2000, the channel is owned by the government of Panama.
Oceangoing vessels that are headed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific came to gateways, where they gradually raised to a height of 26 m. Then, on the waters of an artificial Lake Gatun ships sail to other gateways and come to the Pacific Ocean. After about nine hours of travelling they are in the Bay of Panama.
From 30 to 45 vessels of different types and sizes pass through the channel every day. Payment depends on the tonnage. 40 thousand tons are the maximum allowed. In total about 14 thousand ships are ferried every year.
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Madness on the throne. Caligula

This is perhaps the most famous and vivid case of cruelty and madness on the throne. Although Caligula ruled for only 4 years (from 37 to 41) he had done a lot of troubles. His psychological disorder could be seen in some of the laws. It was illegal to look at Emperor’s face. Caligula used numerous executions and tortures, and made a lot of effort to develop new methods of killing his enemies. He turned imperial palace into a real whorehouse. Caligula ordered to build luxury marble stables for his favorite horse Incitatus. The entire army of servants was around the horse. The Emperor gave his horse official citizenship of Rome and wanted even to make him a senator of the state. His political opponents were outraged by the crazy behavior of the head of state and successfully organized a plot to kill Caligula. Emperor’s body was thrown to the dogs.
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Moscow – old and beautiful city

Moscow is the capital of Russia and one of the ten largest cities in the world. In Russia and Europe, it is the largest city by population – more than 12 million people live here.
Moscow like Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Its history begins with the Kremlin, the historical centre of the capital, its heart and site of both living history and an ensemble of masterpieces of Russian architecture. There are twenty towers.
The Tainitsky (Secret) Tower is the oldest. Inside the Tower which was built in 1485, there was a secret well to get water from the Moskva River during long sieges.
The melodious chimes of the Spassky (Saviour’s) Tower has become the symbol of Moscow. It was built in 1491 by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari.
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Plague – Black Death

For hundreds of years people have called plague the Black Death. But in enlightened and civilized age when medicine is developing rapidly people gradually began to forget about this disease. And almost no one knows that the plague is not just a severe infection. In the Middle Ages its epidemics and pandemics took as many lives as all the wars, and natural disasters put together over the last century. But now mankind has not won plague. We just got a temporary advantage with the help of antibiotics.
So what is the plague, how it influenced our civilization and why we cannot finally win it?
According to recent research, the plague appeared on the Earth about 2-3 thousand years ago as a result of mutations of the yersinia pseudotuberculosis. However, some scholars, including Russian and Soviet biologist and epidemiologist M.V. Supotnitsky believe that the plague raged on the planet in 1200 BC. This is evidenced by the so-called plague of the Philistines, as described in the Bible, the First Book of Kings, which tells about the war between the Philistines and the Israelites followed the epidemic. The experts came to the conclusion that it was the bubonic plague. The Fourth Book of Kings tells the story of Assyrian king Sennacherib who wanted to conquer Jerusalem. The Assyrian army laid siege to the city, but an epidemic killed 185 thousand attackers overnight.
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Female duels – bloody and sophisticated

Duel is considered to be the domain of men. But there were duels between women too. To tell the truth their duels were much more bloody and sophisticated.
The most legendary female duel is considered a duel between Marquise de Nesle and Duchesse de Polignac in autumn 1624. They fought because of Duke of Richelieu (who later became Cardinal). The duel took part in the Bois de Boulogne. Duchesse hurt her opponent’s ear and won the duel. This fight was not something special, but thanks to Richelieu, who wrote about it in his notes, the duel left mark in history.
The first reliable information about female duels dates back to the XVI century. The peak of fashion for ladies’ duel was in the middle of the XVII century.
In France, Italy, England and Germany women crossed swords or used guns almost on any occasion. The same dress, lovers, sidelong glance could be a reason for the fight. 8 of 10 duels between women were fatal. Women’s duels, in fact, had no rules.
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