fall of rome
EUROPE

The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken

In 410 ce, Rome fell to an army of nomadic Germanic peoples 'Visigoths' who pillaged the city over the course of three days. Although Rome had already ceased to be the capital of the Western Roman Empire and the destruction was relatively restrained, the sack sent shock waves across the world. Changes known as the Migration Period, or the Barbarian Invasions, were then taking place, with great movements of peoples across all of Eurasia, from China to Britain.

Declaration of Independence
AMERICA

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

There has been no more daring assertion of statehood than that proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 and signed by all 56 delegates present.

The Long March
ASIA

The Long March is a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding-machine

In the autumn of 1933, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was on the brink of annihilation. Nationalists had taken control of the country and launched a major attack against their base in Jiangxi, a southeastern province.

Conquest of Alexander
EUROPE

There is nothing impossible to he who will try

In one of the fastest and most daring military expansions in history, Alexander the Great, the young king of Macedon in the Balkans, blazed a trail of conquest across most of the known world of his day.

911 attack
AMERICA

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack

On September 11, 2001, a group of Islamic extremists launched a devastating attack against the US.

Abu Simbel
AFRICA

All the lands have fallen prostrate beneath his sandals for eternity

Around 1264 bce, the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II (c.1278–1237 bce) had two mighty temples hewn out of the cliffs on the west bank of the Nile in southern Egypt.

Marco Polo journey
ASIA

I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed

Venetian merchant Marco Polo’s arrival at Chengdu, the capital of the Great Khan Kublai, in 1275 marked the end of a four-year journey.