On 21 July 1969, the American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 spaceship, became the first person in history to set foot on the Moon. This crucial event marked the peak of the Space Race, which pitted the Cold War rivals the USA and the USSR against one another as they sent artificial satellites, probes and eventually humans...
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Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and one of the most controversial politicians of the 20th century. Known in particular for the Watergate scandal, the affair that ended his political career, Nixon was a fierce anti-communist and was responsible for the end of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. In just 50 minutes, you will find out about...
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The invasion of Kuwait, home to one of the largest oilfields in the world, by Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1990 was the catalyst for the Second Gulf War, which pitted Iraq against an international coalition. In Operation Desert Storm in early 1991, this coalition quickly drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait in the largest Allied mobilization since the Second World...
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The Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 is one of the most famous events of the Second World War. Led by the Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the offensive caused the USA to join the Allies in their fight against the Germans, the Italians and the Japanese. In just 50 minutes, you will find out how this brutal attack played...
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The Battle of Gettysburg is widely regarded as one of the turning points of the American Civil War between the Union in the North and the Confederacy in the South. From the outbreak of the war until mid-1863, the Confederate troops had the upper hand over their Union counterparts, but when they attempted to break into Union territory, they were...
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The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of the Second World War, and mobilized extraordinary numbers of men and material on both the Allied and Axis sides. The battle was of major strategic significance: control of the seas would have allowed the Germans to bring Britain to its knees by preventing it from receiving supplies from the USA and its...
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The Battle of the Bulge began in late 1944 with the last major German offensive of the Second World War. Following the Normandy landings earlier that year, the German army was in a weakened state, so this offensive was an attempt to cripple the Allied armies by dividing them and cutting off their supplies. Although the Allies were initially caught by...
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It is impossible to understand modern European history without first understanding the Cold War. Indeed, the tensions between the USA and the USSR, the two great powers to emerge from the Second World War, dominated the second half of the 20th century, resulted in a series of brutal proxy wars and brought the planet to the brink of nuclear war. The clash...
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Understand the essentials of the Great Recession in just 50 minutes with this practical and concise book. This major economic crisis spanned the period from 2007 to 2009 and had disastrous consequences around the world, with millions of Americans losing their homes and numerous financial institutions driven to bankruptcy. The presence of toxic assets in banks in Europe and the USA also...
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The Industrial Revolution was a period of modernization which began in Great Britain before spreading to the rest of Europe. It was during this period that many countries in the Western world changed from being primarily agricultural to being more mechanized, thereby accelerating demographic growth and leading to unprecedented economic change. In just 50 minutes, you will find out how...
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The Iran-Iraq War, which took place between 1980 and 1988, was one of the deadliest conflicts since the Second World War. It involved two ambitious and headstrong leaders: Saddam Hussein, who wanted to make his Republic of Iraq a powerful force in the region, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who planned to export his Islamic Revolution beyond the borders of Iran....
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The Korean War was an internal war which led to a major confrontation between the Western Bloc and the Communist Bloc. The conflict lasted for three years and ended with no real winner, so the Korean Peninsula was divided into two states. In just 50 minutes, you will gain an understanding of why the war broke out and find out...
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