Discus. In the discus event the athletes threw a disk-shaped object for distance. The discus itself was made of stone or, later, iron, lead, or bronze. Long jump. To increase their distance, the athletes held weights. They swung them above their heads on takeoff and threw them behind them before landing. Javelin. The javelin was a wooden rod with one end sharpened. The athletes held a leather strap placed around the rod that helped them to throw the javelin farther. Equestrian events. Two- and four-horse chariot races as well as horse riding races made up the equestrian events. The owners of the chariots or horses, not the participants, won. Running events. There were four running events, all of which consisted of a predetermined number of laps in the stadium. In one race the athletes wore armor and carried a shield. Boxing. The athletes wrapped their hands and wrists in leather. Later they added metal on their knuckles. An athlete won when his opponent was knocked out or gave up. Wrestling. The athletes fought with bare hands while standing up. An athlete won after he forced his opponent’s hip, shoulder, or back to the ground three times. Pankration. The pankration was a combination of wrestling and boxing. The only rules were that an athlete could not bite his opponent or gouge at his eyes or nose.
Wars of the Roses, (1455–85), in English history, the series of dynastic civil wars whose violence and civil strife preceded the strong government of the Tudors. Fought between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, the wars were named many years afterward from the supposed badges of the contending parties: the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. Competing claims to the throne and the beginning of civil war Both houses claimed the throne through descent from the sons of Edward III. Since the Lancastrians had occupied the throne from 1399, the Yorkists might never have pressed a claim but for the near anarchy prevailing in the mid-15th century. After the death of Henry V in 1422 the country was subject to the long and factious minority of Henry VI (August 1422–November 1437), during which the English kingdom was managed by the king’s council, a predominantly aristocratic body. That arrangement, which probably did not accord with Henry V’s last wishes, was not maintained without difficulty. Like Richard II before him, Henry VI had powerful relatives eager to grasp after power and to place themselves at the head of factions in the state. The council soon became their battleground. Great magnates with private armies dominated the countryside. Lawlessness was rife and taxation burdensome. Henry later proved to be feckless and simpleminded, subject to spells of madness, and dominated by his ambitious queen, Margaret of Anjou, whose party had allowed the English position in France to deteriorate.
Hannibal (born 247 bce, North Africa—died c. 183–181 bce, Libyssa, Bithynia [near Gebze, Turkey]) was a Carthaginian general, one of the great military leaders of antiquity, who commanded the Carthaginian forces against Rome in the Second Punic War (218–201 bce) and who continued to oppose Rome and its satellites until his death. Early life Hannibal was the son of the great Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca. The Greek historian Polybius and the Roman historian Livy are the two primary sources for his life. According to them, Hannibal was taken to Spain by his father and at an early age was made to swear eternal hostility to Rome. From the death of his father in 229/228 until his own death about 183, Hannibal’s life was one of near constant struggle against the Roman Republic. Hannibal’s earliest commands were given to him in the Carthaginian province of Spain by Hasdrubal, son-in-law and successor of Hamilcar. It is clear that Hannibal emerged as a successful officer, for, on the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221, the army proclaimed him, at age 26, its commander in chief, and the Carthaginian government quickly ratified his field appointment. Hannibal immediately turned himself to the consolidation of the Punic hold on Spain. He married a Spanish princess, Imilce, and then conquered various Spanish tribes. He fought against the Olcades and captured their capital, Althaea, and he quelled the Vaccaei in the northwest. In 221, making the seaport of Kart-hadasht (modern Cartagena, Spain) his base, he won a resounding victory over the Carpetani in the region of the Tagus River.
World War I, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused. World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II. The last surviving veterans of World War I were American serviceman Frank Buckles (died in February 2011), British-born Australian serviceman Claude Choules (died in May 2011), and British servicewoman Florence Green (died in February 2012), the last surviving veteran of the war. With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912–13, 1913), Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of “liberating” the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia’s military intelligence, was also, under the alias “Apis,” head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition. Believing that the Serbs’ cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be understood.
Twice a year thousands of visitors crowd into the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá, located in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, in anticipation of the descent of Kukulcán. They gather around the site’s pyramid, called El Castillo (“the Castle”) by Spanish conquistadors, where, according to legend, Kukulcán, the feathered serpent god, alights from the heavens, blesses his worshipers on earth, and then makes his way to the underworld, or Xibalba. In reality, the setting sun during the spring and fall equinoxes casts a shadow on the northern balustrade of El Castillo that resembles the form of a snake slithering down the stairs, an effect which is heightened by the heads of sculpted beasts at the base. While onlookers observe the phenomenon on the outside, archaeologists have been exploring the inside of the pyramid for nearly a hundred years. Archaeological explorations of El Castillo have revealed not only the rubble or earth from which many Mesoamerican pyramids are built but also two earlier pyramids and possibly an entrance to hell, er, Xibalba. With its pleasing radial symmetry, tidy stepped platforms, and crowning temple, El Castillo is one of the most recognizable Mesoamerican pyramids. It was probably built by the Toltec-Maya between 1050 and 1300 CE when the rest of the Maya population was dwindling. It’s famous not only for the descent of Kukulcán but also for its relationship to the Maya calendar. Each of the pyramid’s four sides has a staircase of 91 steps. The total number of steps, when combined with the temple at its summit, equals 365—the number of days in the Maya solar year. The temple on top was used exclusively by priests who performed sacred rituals at a height that brought them closer to the gods in the sky. Priests ascended one of the four staircases to reach the temple—the pyramid was never meant to be entered. In the 1930s, however, a group of excavators began exploring and discovered that another pyramid-temple was nestled within the larger pyramid. Further excavations revealed that it had nine platforms, a single stairway, and a temple containing human remains, a jade-studded jaguar throne, and a so-called Chac Mool. The Chac Mool is a type of Maya sculpture of an abstract male figure reclining and holding a bowl used as a receptacle for sacrifices. Researchers theorize that this pyramid was constructed sometime between 800 and 1000 CE. In the mid-2010s archaeologists using noninvasive imaging techniques discovered yet another pyramid buried within the two others. They theorize that it was probably built between 550 and 800 CE and may have had a single stair way and an altar. El Castillo is not unusual for having not one but two temple-pyramids inside of it—archaeologists have found earlier structures within several Mesoamerican pyramids. For example, excavations of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán, which was constructed by an unnamed ancient culture near Mexico City around 100 CE, found that the pyramid had possibly been built over three earlier structures. Scholars speculate that rulers often constructed over existing buildings as a means of outdoing their predecessors. Interestingly, archaeologists working in the 1970s also found a system of caves and tunnels below the Pyramid of the Sun, which connected to the city’s various underground rivers. The discovery suggested a purposeful decision to build on that very spot.
Great Wall of China, extensive bulwark erected in ancient China, one of the largest building-construction projects ever undertaken. The Great Wall actually consists of numerous walls—many of them parallel to each other—built over some two millennia across northern China and southern Mongolia. The most extensive and best-preserved version of the wall dates from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and runs for some 5,500 miles (8,850 km) east to west from Mount Hu near Dandong, southeastern Liaoning province, to Jiayu Pass west of Jiuquan, northwestern Gansu province. This wall often traces the crestlines of hills and mountains as it snakes across the Chinese countryside, and about one-fourth of its length consists solely of natural barriers such as rivers and mountain ridges. Nearly all of the rest (about 70 percent of the total length) is actual constructed wall, with the small remaining stretches constituting ditches or moats. Although lengthy sections of the wall are now in ruins or have disappeared completely, it is still one of the more remarkable structures on Earth. The Great Wall was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Large parts of the fortification system date from the 7th through the 4th century bce. In the 3rd century bce Shihuangdi (Qin Shihuang), the first emperor of a united China (under the Qin dynasty), connected a number of existing defensive walls into a single system. Traditionally, the eastern terminus of the wall was considered to be Shanhai Pass (Shanhaiguan) in eastern Hebei province along the coast of the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli), and the wall’s length—without its branches and other secondary sections—was thought to extend for some 4,160 miles (6,700 km). However, government-sponsored investigations that began in the 1990s revealed sections of wall in Liaoning, and aerial and satellite surveillance eventually proved that this wall stretched continuously through much of the province. The greater total length of the Ming wall was announced in 2009.