For a while, the black death’s etiology was uncertain. But thanks to ever-improving technology, scientists have determined that the plague originated in a Chinese rodent population in the form of the rod-shaped Yersinia pestis, which likely made its way to Europe via the Silk Road and merchant ships between 1346 and 1353. Science jargon aside, the plague took with it between 75 and 200 million people, or at least one-third of Europe’s population at the time. It took over 150 years for all of Europe to recover from a mere bacteria, but not without monumental social, political and economic upheavals.

Not a force to be reckoned with, the Maori battalion (consisting of indigenous Polynesians residing within New Zealand) proved the most decorated New Zealand battalion during World War Two.

Source: Fresh Net

Most people have heard of Anastasia, the daughter of Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna who, according to a trove of rumors, survived her family’s extrajudicial murder in July 1918. Though the rumors were later disproved, general fascination with Anastasia and the tragic story of Imperial Russia’s final sovereign family has garnered extensive attention and even an animated movie, Anastasia, released in 1997. Though the movie wasn’t historically accurate, Rasputin, the minion-dispatching menace did exist. According to many eyewitness testimonies, the “man who wouldn’t die” was just as intriguing as the royal family itself.

Source: Gabriel Reads

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