March 03 in history: Oil discovered in Saudi, Texas becomes state, and more

March 02 in history: Queen Victoria's attempted assassination, and more

February 23 in history: First mass polio vaccine, Panama Canal Zone, and more

February 22 in history: New Zealand earthquake, Ukrainian President impeached, and more

February 21 in history: First railway journey, telephone book, and more

February 20 in history: Construction of Canberra begins, US citizen orbits Earth, and more

February 17 in history: Indonesia tsunami, China invades Vietnam, and more

February 13 in history: Delhi becomes India's capital, USSR captures Budapest, and more

Remains of French and Russian soldiers who died in a battle during the Napoleonic war will be laid to rest on Saturday. The soldiers squared off with each other during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, that heralded the disastrous collapse of his Russian campaign. A ceremony near the city of Smolensk will see the re-burial of 126 people killed in one of the bloodiest battles of Napoleon's Russian campaign. This battle was fought in 1812.

Descendants of 19th-century Russian and French military leaders, as well as dozens of re-enactors, are expected to attend the burial in Vyazma, a town more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of Moscow.

Remains of 120 soldiers, three women and three teenagers were discovered in a mass grave by archaeologists from both countries in 2019.

The dig was led by Pierre Malinowski, the Kremlin-connected head of the Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historic Initiatives.

The three women are believed to be so-called "vivandieres", who provided first aid and kept canteens in the French army, while the three adolescents are believed to have been drummers.

All are thought to have fallen during the Battle of Vyazma on November 3, 1812 at the beginning of the French army's retreat from Moscow and before the horrific crossing of the Berezina River.

The ceremony, complete with a gun salute, will mark a rare moment of unity between Russia and Europe at a time of heightened tensions over a litany of issues including the Kremlin's increasingly harsh crackdown on political opposition.

Napoleon's dreams of conquering the world fell apart after he appeared to bite more than he could chew in the Russian campaign. The Emporer who had brought Europe to its knees played a huge gamble in an attempt to win Russia, only to be defeated by the vast country and its unforgiving winter.

(With AFP inputs)

Remains of French and Russian soldiers who died in a battle during the Napoleonic war will be laid to rest on Saturday. The soldiers squared off with each other during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, that heralded the disastrous collapse of his Russian campaign.

Remains of French and Russian soldiers who died in a battle during the Napoleonic war will be laid to rest on Saturday. The soldiers squared off with each other during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, that heralded the disastrous collapse of his Russian campaign. A ceremony near the city of Smolensk will see the re-burial of 126 people killed in one of the bloodiest battles of Napoleon's Russian campaign. This battle was fought in 1812. Descendants of 19th-century Russian and French military leaders, as well as dozens of re-enactors, are expected to attend the burial in Vyazma, a town more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of Moscow. Remains of 120 soldiers, three women and three teenagers were discovered in a mass grave by archaeologists from both countries in 2019. The dig was led by Pierre Malinowski, the Kremlin-connected head of the Foundation for the Development of Russian-French Historic Initiatives. The three women are believed to be so-called "vivandieres", who provided first aid and kept canteens in the French army, while the three adolescents are believed to have been drummers. All are thought to have fallen during the Battle of Vyazma on November 3, 1812 at the beginning of the French army's retreat from Moscow and before the horrific crossing of the Berezina River. The ceremony, complete with a gun salute, will mark a rare moment of unity between Russia and Europe at a time of heightened tensions over a litany of issues including the Kremlin's increasingly harsh crackdown on political opposition. Napoleon's dreams of conquering the world fell apart after he appeared to bite more than he could chew in the Russian campaign. The Emporer who had brought Europe to its knees played a huge gamble in an attempt to win Russia, only to be defeated by the vast country and its unforgiving winter. (With AFP inputs)

France and Russia to bury soldiers 200 years after Napoleonic war

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Not long before Christmas, as the pandemic was taking a devastating toll in rural Iowa, Rebecca Tinti was visiting some neighbors who had fallen ill.

At the family’s farm, she found seven of them, including a newborn baby, bedridden with sickness, leaving a 6-year-old girl to take care of everyone else.

Tinti stepped in to help, but she couldn’t avert tragedy.

“The mister had been waiting on the rest till he had a relapse and kept on getting worse, till he died a week later,” she wrote in a letter dated January 1919. “I stayed till the funeral, which was the day before Christmas.”

Tinti’s letters are now in the hands of her goddaughter’s daughter Ruth M. Lux, 72, of Lidderdale, Iowa. Lux has dozens of old family letters, which were passed down from her mother and her grandmother.

“I call my house the Lidderdale branch of the National Archives,” she said.

Those letters — updates about corn harvests and slaughtered hogs, interspersed with reports of illness and death — are dispatches from the domestic front of a pandemic in which millions of Americans were sickened and 675,000 died, among at least 50 million deaths worldwide. It has been attributed to an H1N1 virus that originated in birds.

That pandemic, like the coronavirus today, seemed to roll across the United States in waves. The winter holidays in 1918 were marked by grievous loss. They came during a relative lull after the deadliest wave, in the fall. Another, smaller surge would peak shortly after New Year’s Day.

But the national conversation around private family gatherings appeared to have been less charged in 1918 than it is today, as many weary from months of restrictions bristle at guidance from health agencies to stay home.

“Hundreds of thousands of people lost loved ones,” said J. Alexander Navarro, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and an editor of the online Influenza Encyclopedia. “But by the time of Thanksgiving, there really wasn’t much debate about whether or not they should get together.”

So they did, often with an empty chair at the table.

At the time, another major event was stealing newspaper headlines: the end of World War I. Soldiers were returning to their homes, and the Allied victory was a cause for celebration.

“This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice,” President Woodrow Wilson said in a Thanksgiving proclamation, which did not mention the pandemic. “God has in His good pleasure given us peace.”

And although soldiers’ domestic and international travels played a major part in spreading the flu, news reports from the time suggest that the risk of infection did not stop people from celebrating the Allied victory in person.

On Christmas Eve 1918, The New York Times reported that thousands of soldiers would be welcomed into homes in New York City and invited to attend dances and feasts. At one event at the 71st Regiment Armory on Park Avenue in Manhattan, “besides the fun and the dancing there will be 300 pounds of chocolate fudge made by pretty girls, and ever so many pounds of iced cake, mostly made by their mothers,” the report said.

Other celebrations were more subdued. For many people in the United States, the Christmas holiday was centered around the home, said Penne L. Restad, a historian with the University of Texas at Austin who is an expert on holidays.

Holiday travel was less common in 1918 than it is today, in part because families tended to live closer together, Restad said. The practice of dragging an evergreen tree indoors to decorate it was in fashion. So were gifts for children, delivered by Santa Claus.

For many, church services were also a part of the holiday season. And in 1918, Lux’s great-grandmother Caroline Schumacher was sad to miss them.

“I suppose you’ve seen that the town is quarantined,” she said in a letter from Carroll, Iowa, dated Dec. 29. “Don’t know how long it will be closed yet. It is terrible when there is no church. It didn’t seem like Christmas at all.”

Because personal letters relayed the details of daily life, they sometimes preserved pieces of history that the newspapers overlooked, Restad said.

“Domestic culture, and to a large degree consumer culture, is often recorded by women,” she added.

Lux’s family letters, some of which are hard to read because of wispy handwriting or irregular spelling and grammar, were transcribed in 2014 by Julia Evans, who was then studying history at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and now manages museum exhibits.

Newspapers covered the pandemic, too, and reports from across the United States showed a patchwork of officials’ responses to the spread of the influenza.

In Hamilton, Montana, The Ravalli Republican reported that a monthslong, citywide shutdown was lifted in late December 1918 — just in time for churches and movie theaters to open on Christmas Day.

In Lodi, California, “owing to the presence of influenza here, Christmas celebrations have been greatly curtailed, though merchants report a good holiday business,” The Sacramento Bee reported on Christmas Eve. “There will be no municipal tree this year.”

And shortly after Christmas, The Chicago Defender published reports about families who had gathered for family visits or church services across Illinois. The reports were interspersed with notices about people who had fallen ill or died of influenza.

This year, with coronavirus cases rising and health professionals girding for a surge in infections associated with holiday travel, Lux plans to stay home alone on Christmas. But her family letters from a century ago told of gatherings, as well as grave diggings.

“I was for three weeks busy doing the neighbors’ chores and burying the dead,” one relative, John Tinti, wrote in February 1919. “I helped lay away more people this winter than I ever did in all my life. It sure was awful.”

Margaret Hamilton, another relative, wrote that she nearly died herself.

“My heart almost refused to work and my lips and nails were a purplish black,” she said in a March 1919 letter. “Sure almost went over.”

Lux was most impressed with Rebecca Tinti, the great-godmother whose letters told of multiple trips to take care of friends and neighbors who were gravely ill.

“This lady was literally the Florence Nightingale of Adair County,” Lux said.

So on a windy day in April — the same month the global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 200,000 — Lux traveled about 60 miles from Lidderdale to Casey, Iowa, to see the spot where Tinti was buried almost 90 years ago.

The grave was easy to find, in a small cemetery at the top of a hill.

“I thought, ‘No one has put anything on these graves for decades and decades,’” Lux said.

She laid down a bouquet of silk flowers before driving back home.

Not long before Christmas, as the pandemic was taking a devastating toll in rural Iowa, Rebecca Tinti was visiting some neighbors who had fallen ill. At the family’s farm, she found seven of them, including a newborn baby, bedridden with sickness, leaving a 6-year-old girl to take care of everyone else.

Not long before Christmas, as the pandemic was taking a devastating toll in rural Iowa, Rebecca Tinti was visiting some neighbors who had fallen ill. At the family’s farm, she found seven of them, including a newborn baby, bedridden with sickness, leaving a 6-year-old girl to take care of everyone else. Tinti stepped in to help, but she couldn’t avert tragedy. “The mister had been waiting on the rest till he had a relapse and kept on getting worse, till he died a week later,” she wrote in a letter dated January 1919. “I stayed till the funeral, which was the day before Christmas.” Tinti’s letters are now in the hands of her goddaughter’s daughter Ruth M. Lux, 72, of Lidderdale, Iowa. Lux has dozens of old family letters, which were passed down from her mother and her grandmother. “I call my house the Lidderdale branch of the National Archives,” she said. Those letters — updates about corn harvests and slaughtered hogs, interspersed with reports of illness and death — are dispatches from the domestic front of a pandemic in which millions of Americans were sickened and 675,000 died, among at least 50 million deaths worldwide. It has been attributed to an H1N1 virus that originated in birds. That pandemic, like the coronavirus today, seemed to roll across the United States in waves. The winter holidays in 1918 were marked by grievous loss. They came during a relative lull after the deadliest wave, in the fall. Another, smaller surge would peak shortly after New Year’s Day. But the national conversation around private family gatherings appeared to have been less charged in 1918 than it is today, as many weary from months of restrictions bristle at guidance from health agencies to stay home. “Hundreds of thousands of people lost loved ones,” said J. Alexander Navarro, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and an editor of the online Influenza Encyclopedia. “But by the time of Thanksgiving, there really wasn’t much debate about whether or not they should get together.” So they did, often with an empty chair at the table. At the time, another major event was stealing newspaper headlines: the end of World War I. Soldiers were returning to their homes, and the Allied victory was a cause for celebration. “This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice,” President Woodrow Wilson said in a Thanksgiving proclamation, which did not mention the pandemic. “God has in His good pleasure given us peace.” And although soldiers’ domestic and international travels played a major part in spreading the flu, news reports from the time suggest that the risk of infection did not stop people from celebrating the Allied victory in person. On Christmas Eve 1918, The New York Times reported that thousands of soldiers would be welcomed into homes in New York City and invited to attend dances and feasts. At one event at the 71st Regiment Armory on Park Avenue in Manhattan, “besides the fun and the dancing there will be 300 pounds of chocolate fudge made by pretty girls, and ever so many pounds of iced cake, mostly made by their mothers,” the report said. Other celebrations were more subdued. For many people in the United States, the Christmas holiday was centered around the home, said Penne L. Restad, a historian with the University of Texas at Austin who is an expert on holidays. Holiday travel was less common in 1918 than it is today, in part because families tended to live closer together, Restad said. The practice of dragging an evergreen tree indoors to decorate it was in fashion. So were gifts for children, delivered by Santa Claus. For many, church services were also a part of the holiday season. And in 1918, Lux’s great-grandmother Caroline Schumacher was sad to miss them. “I suppose you’ve seen that the town is quarantined,” she said in a letter from Carroll, Iowa, dated Dec. 29. “Don’t know how long it will be closed yet. It is terrible when there is no church. It didn’t seem like Christmas at all.” Because personal letters relayed the details of daily life, they sometimes preserved pieces of history that the newspapers overlooked, Restad said. “Domestic culture, and to a large degree consumer culture, is often recorded by women,” she added. Lux’s family letters, some of which are hard to read because of wispy handwriting or irregular spelling and grammar, were transcribed in 2014 by Julia Evans, who was then studying history at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and now manages museum exhibits. Newspapers covered the pandemic, too, and reports from across the United States showed a patchwork of officials’ responses to the spread of the influenza. In Hamilton, Montana, The Ravalli Republican reported that a monthslong, citywide shutdown was lifted in late December 1918 — just in time for churches and movie theaters to open on Christmas Day. In Lodi, California, “owing to the presence of influenza here, Christmas celebrations have been greatly curtailed, though merchants report a good holiday business,” The Sacramento Bee reported on Christmas Eve. “There will be no municipal tree this year.” And shortly after Christmas, The Chicago Defender published reports about families who had gathered for family visits or church services across Illinois. The reports were interspersed with notices about people who had fallen ill or died of influenza. This year, with coronavirus cases rising and health professionals girding for a surge in infections associated with holiday travel, Lux plans to stay home alone on Christmas. But her family letters from a century ago told of gatherings, as well as grave diggings. “I was for three weeks busy doing the neighbors’ chores and burying the dead,” one relative, John Tinti, wrote in February 1919. “I helped lay away more people this winter than I ever did in all my life. It sure was awful.” Margaret Hamilton, another relative, wrote that she nearly died herself. “My heart almost refused to work and my lips and nails were a purplish black,” she said in a March 1919 letter. “Sure almost went over.” Lux was most impressed with Rebecca Tinti, the great-godmother whose letters told of multiple trips to take care of friends and neighbors who were gravely ill. “This lady was literally the Florence Nightingale of Adair County,” Lux said. So on a windy day in April — the same month the global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 200,000 — Lux traveled about 60 miles from Lidderdale to Casey, Iowa, to see the spot where Tinti was buried almost 90 years ago. The grave was easy to find, in a small cemetery at the top of a hill. “I thought, ‘No one has put anything on these graves for decades and decades,’” Lux said. She laid down a bouquet of silk flowers before driving back home.

Holidays in a pandemic? Here’s what happened in 1918

Today in history: US allows gays to serve in military, delivery of first Mercedes, and more

An Egyptian artefact, missing for decades, was found this month in a cigar box at the Scottish University of Aberdeen by an Egyptian staff member.

Artefact found in Scotland cigar box could unveil mysteries of Great Pyramid 

Today in history: Birth of quantum theory, passage of first aircraft by Venus, and more

November 28 in history: Tehran Conference, NASA launches Mariner 4 and more

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The United States Justice Department recently seized thousands of bitcoins amounting up to over $1 billion, marking the largest haul related to the crypto-currency.

The department wants forfeiture of these bitcoins which were reportedly stolen from the defunct Silk Road marketplace on the dark web.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/technology/twitter-reveals-how-bitcoin-scammers-hijacked-celebrity-accounts-317307" hreflang="en">Twitter reveals how Bitcoin scammers hijacked celebrity accounts</a>

In a statement, the US Justice Department said that this is the “largest seizure” relating to cryptocurrency in the department’s history. &nbsp;

Reported first by Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency was unlawfully procured from Silk Road. In the statement, the investigators mentioned that they employed various software tools to identify 54 transactions undertaken by Silk Road.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/opinions-blogs/explained-bitcoin-halving-and-the-expected-bull-market-for-digital-assets-295870" hreflang="en">Explained: Bitcoin halving and the expected bull-market for digital assets</a>

All of these transactions used bitcoins that were sourced from unlawful activity. Reportedly, the currency was stolen&nbsp;from Silk Road between 2012-2013.

According to the department’s statement, “Individual X had hacked the funds from Silk Road”. Following this, “law enforcement seized several thousand Bitcoins on November 3, 2020.&nbsp; On November 4, 2020, the seized Bitcoin had a value of over $1 billion”, the statement added.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/cryptocurrency-products-banned-in-uk-after-year-long-review-333075" hreflang="en">Cryptocurrency products banned in UK after year-long review</a>

Court documents added that they were aware of Individual X’s identity, and that the person in question had kept the money, and earlier refused to return it. They had also not spent it.

But on November 3, the person in question signed a forfeiture agreement with the United States government, and the custody of that property was handed over to the US government on the same day.

The United States Justice Department recently seized thousands of bitcoins amounting up to over $1 billion, marking the largest haul related to the crypto-currency.

The United States Justice Department recently seized thousands of bitcoins amounting up to over $1 billion, marking the largest haul related to the crypto-currency. The department wants forfeiture of these bitcoins which were reportedly stolen from the defunct Silk Road marketplace on the dark web. Also read: Twitter reveals how Bitcoin scammers hijacked celebrity accounts In a statement, the US Justice Department said that this is the “largest seizure” relating to cryptocurrency in the department’s history. Reported first by Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency was unlawfully procured from Silk Road. In the statement, the investigators mentioned that they employed various software tools to identify 54 transactions undertaken by Silk Road. Also read: Explained: Bitcoin halving and the expected bull-market for digital assets All of these transactions used bitcoins that were sourced from unlawful activity. Reportedly, the currency was stolen from Silk Road between 2012-2013. According to the department’s statement, “Individual X had hacked the funds from Silk Road”. Following this, “law enforcement seized several thousand Bitcoins on November 3, 2020. On November 4, 2020, the seized Bitcoin had a value of over $1 billion”, the statement added. Also read: Cryptocurrency products banned in UK after year-long review Court documents added that they were aware of Individual X’s identity, and that the person in question had kept the money, and earlier refused to return it. They had also not spent it. But on November 3, the person in question signed a forfeiture agreement with the United States government, and the custody of that property was handed over to the US government on the same day.

US seizes bitcoins worth $1billion, the largest cryptocurrency haul in history

Today in history: Google unveils Android, India launches Mangalyaan, and more

Egyptian archaeologists discovered more than 80 coffins on Monday (October 19) in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, a burial ground that is also home to one of the world's oldest pyramids.

Over 80 coffins discovered in ancient Egyptian necropolis

In France, several hundred teachers gather in front of the rectorate in Rennes, Brittany, to pay tribute to the history teacher beheaded in a Paris suburb by a young Chechen Russian man.

French teacher beheaded: Students recall history teacher as being king, Teachers pay tribute

Terror struck France, this time with the gruesome beheading of a history teacher in a street in a Paris suburb. The suspected attacker was shot and killed by police.

History teacher beheaded in France: Teacher showed Prophet caricatures

A history teacher had been beheaded in France after discussing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in class. The suspected attacker was shot and killed by police.

Teacher beheaded in Paris; Macron calls it Islamist terrorist attack

A valuable stolen Chinese calligraphy scroll written by Chairman Mao Zedong has been found cut in half in Hong Kong, police said on Wednesday (October 7), after it was stolen from an art collector's home in September.

Valuable stolen Mao Zedong scroll found cut in half in Hong Kong

Amid busy construction crews racing to build an airport in Mexico, scientists are unearthing more and more mammoth skeletons in what has quickly become one of the world's biggest concentrations of the now-extinct relative of modern elephants.

Mexican airport site emerges as major graveyard of Ice Age mammoths

Aug 31 in history: First radio news programme, Brazil president impeached and more

August 24 in history: NATO enters into force, France tests hydrogen bomb and more

August 01 in history: Abolition of slavery, start of Non-Cooperation movement in India and more

A century-old postcard showing a French country lane has helped researchers paint a picture of the final hours before Vincent van Gogh committed suicide 130 years ago.

Tree roots tell story of Van Gogh's final hours after lockdown discovery

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