The Crimean Slave Trade

 When most people think of the slave trade, they think of the transatlantic slave trade. However, there was another huge slave trade. For hundreds of years, slave traders raided Ukraine and Southern Russia, and slaves were sold in Crimea.

Battle of Hormozdgan

 On 28 April 224 AD, the Sassanids defeated the Parthians at the battle of Hormozdgan in Iran. The Parthians had ruled Iraq and Iran for 400 years. The Sassanids conquered Iraq and Iran and ruled them for 400 years until the Arabs invaded. The Parthians and the Sassanids were both powerful empires. Both were enemies of Rome, and they fought the Romans several times. I heard about an earlier empire, the Persian Empire, when I was young, mostly because they fought the Greeks. But I never heard about the later empires in the region, the Parthians and the Sassanids.

At school, I was taught a very Eurocentric version of history. I was told that the Romans conquered most of the known world, which isn’t true. I was not told that the Roman Empire had powerful rivals, the Parthian Empire, followed by the Sassanid Empire. As I said, I heard about the Persian Empire, but it was a very biased version of history in which the Greeks were the goodies and the Persians were the baddies.

The Sultana Steamship

 On 27 April 1865, a boiler on a steamship called The Sultana exploded. Hundreds of people were killed straight away, but the explosion caused a fire that quickly spread. The ship burned and sank. About 1,800 people died on the Sultana, more than died on the Titanic. The Sultana Disaster Museum. 

Alaska Timeline

 On 3 January 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the USA. This is my timeline of Alaska.

Mayday Video

 I made a video about the history of Mayday 

History of Burlesque

 26 April is World Burlesque Day. This website has a history of burlesque. 

The Great Michael

 In 1512, the Scots launched the Great Michael. At 240 feet long, it was the largest ship afloat. She was much bigger than the Mary Rose. She was named after the Archangel Michael. She was supposed to have oak walls 10 feet thick, so thick that cannonballs could not penetrate them.

However, the Great Michael was too expensive for a poor country like Scotland to run, and in 1514, it was sold to the French. It’s not certain what happened to the Great Michael, but it’s possible she fought against the English at the Battle of the Solent in 1545 under the new name La Grande Nef d’Ecosse (The Great Scottish Nave).