Lands comprising of what is now Isreal and Palestine, including the holy land of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.
Holy Land
Fact of the Day
In 1956 John Wayne starred as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. It was filmed in Utah, downwind of the US government's nuclear tests in Nevada, and about half the cast and crew developed cancer as a result.
Quote of the Day
"We would often be ashamed of our finest actions if the world could see the motives behind them.
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~ La Rochefoucauld (17th century)
On This Day
1349 Almost the entire Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, were rounded up and burnt to death in a barn, after they were wrongly blamed for causing the Black Death.
1799 William Pitt the Younger introduced an income tax to help fund the war against Napoleon.
1806 Admiral Lord Nelson was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
1902 New York State introduced a bill to ban flirting in public. It carried a $25 fine for those who broke it.
1909 Although not reaching their goal of the South Pole, Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition reached closer to it - 97.5 nautical miles - than anyone before.
1916 The Battle of Gallipoli concluded with a victory for the Ottoman Empire and the withdrawal of Allied troops from the peninsula.
1957 The Conservative prime minister, Anthony Eden, resigned just weeks after the Suez Crisis, citing ill health.
1972 British miners came out in their first official strike since 1926. It ended on 28th February 1972 when miners went back to work after accepting an improved pay offer.