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Curated playlist

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

  • Giuseppe VerdiComposer Giuseppe Verdi liked to claim peasant roots, but his father, an innkeeper, pushed for his schooling.
  • Queen VictoriaQueen Victoria drove the same road the day after a gun failed to fire at her, hoping to draw a second shot.
  • David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George had to be smuggled out of Birmingham disguised as a policeman.
  • George VIGeorge VI, known to his family as Bertie, wrote an anguished line in his diary about the day before his brother gave up the crown. He had gone to London to tell his mother, Queen Mary, what had happened. His entry read: "When I told her…
  • Nicholas IINicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, carried a large dragon tattooed on his right forearm. The artist was Hori Chiyo, and the tattoo was a souvenir of the young heir's visit to Japan. That same journey nearly ended in disaster. At…
  • Dwight D. EisenhowerEisenhower wrote a note taking all blame if D-Day failed. He drafted it on the eve of the June 1944 landings.
  • Queen CamillaQueen Camilla, born Camilla Rosemary Shand, is the second wife of King Charles III and queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. In 1999, around 200 photographers and reporters from across the world crowded in to watch…
  • Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorOn August 6, 1806, Francis II ended the Holy Roman Empire with a single signed declaration. He was its last emperor.
  • François MitterrandFrançois Mitterrand, who ended France's death penalty, once urged rejecting mercy in 80% of cases.
  • Józef PiłsudskiJózef Piłsudski robbed a Russian mail train in 1908 to fund his secret army. The haul was 200,812 rubles.
  • Napoleon IIINapoleon III escaped a life sentence by walking out of prison dressed as a laborer.
  • Marc ChagallMarc Chagall fled Europe in 1941 on a ship carrying 119 refugee children. He taught them drawing.
  • Edward VIIEdward VII was barely a month old on the 8th of December 1841 when he was created Prince of Wales. He would carry that title until the 22nd of January 1901, a span of 59 years and 45 days. No heir in British history had waited so long, and…
  • Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and GothaPrince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha never wore a crown, yet the clerk of the Privy Council, Charles Greville, once wrote of him: "He is King to all intents and purposes." Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria, and Greville's line…
  • Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle tried five times to escape German prison camps in the First World War. He even posed as a nurse.
  • Maximilian I of MexicoFacing a firing squad in 1867, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico handed each executioner a gold coin.
  • Alexander III of RussiaAlexander III of Russia answered an Austrian ambassador's threat by twisting a silver fork into a knot.
  • Bernard MontgomeryBernard Law Montgomery lay in an open field at Méteren on the 13th of October 1914, shot through the right lung by a sniper. The village sits near the Belgian border at Bailleul. Montgomery was a young officer of the Royal Warwickshire…
  • Konrad AdenauerObservers said Konrad Adenauer became West Germany's first chancellor by one vote, his own. He was 73.
  • Alexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia died in 1825, but a legend says he faked it. The story claims he became a Siberian hermit.
  • MongkutKing Mongkut of Siam correctly predicted a total solar eclipse in 1868. His astrologers had predicted differently.
  • Queen Elizabeth the Queen MotherAdolf Hitler is said to have called Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother "the most dangerous woman in Europe." The reason, according to the story, was her popularity, which he saw as a threat to German interests. She was born Elizabeth Angela…
  • Leopold II of BelgiumLeopold II of Belgium was the second king of the Belgians, and in 1908 he lost the Congo. The entire archive of the Congo Free State was then burned. Leopold told an aide that, although the colony had been taken from him, "they have no…
  • Louis PasteurIn 1885, Louis Pasteur treated a boy mauled by a rabid dog despite holding no medical license.
  • Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
  • Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss died in 2009, and for four days the world did not know.
  • Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin's grandfather cooked personal meals for both Lenin and Stalin. Putin later joined the KGB in 1975.
  • Boris YeltsinBoris Yeltsin climbed onto a tank in 1991 to defy a coup. Soldiers sent to crush the protest switched sides.
  • Jérôme BonaparteJérôme Bonaparte married a Baltimore woman despite her father's warnings, then abandoned her for a crown.
  • Joseph BonaparteJoseph Bonaparte hid on a ship under a false name while British officers searched it three times.
  • Alexander II of RussiaOn the morning a bomb killed him, Alexander II signed a step toward representative government.
  • Franz Joseph IOn the evening of the 21st of November 1916, inside Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Emperor Franz Joseph I gave his valet a final instruction. "Tomorrow morning, at half past three." Those were his last words. He was 86 years old. Franz…
  • Wojciech JaruzelskiWojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland on the 13th of December 1981. Later he helped end Communist rule.
  • Charles XIV JohnBernadotte threw his epaulettes on the ground to stop his retreating soldiers. They picked them up and counter-attacked.
  • Napoleon IINapoleon II was Emperor of the French for only two days. He was three years old and never ruled.
  • Otto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg, born to be emperor, spent nearly half a century in exile from Austria.
  • Louis Philippe IBefore he became king of France, Louis Philippe I lived above a Boston oyster house.
  • Archduke Charles, Duke of TeschenArchduke Charles of Austria beat Napoleon in 1809 at Aspern-Essling. It was Napoleon's first big pitched-battle loss.
  • Lord MountbattenLord Mountbatten sat alone in his study at the Viceroy's House as midnight arrived on the 15th of August 1947. India and Pakistan were becoming independent nations, and he reflected that for a few minutes more he remained the most powerful…
  • Haile SelassieIn 1992, the bones of Haile Selassie I were found beneath a concrete slab on the grounds of a palace. The man buried there had been born Tafari Makonnen. He had ruled Ethiopia as emperor from 1930 to 1974. How does a ruler of such rank end…
  • Otto von BismarckIn 1889, Otto von Bismarck was recorded on an Edison phonograph, quoting the opening verse of La Marseillaise among other lines. That recording is the only known capture of his voice. One biographer argues that he chose the French song to…
  • Victor DuruyAt twenty-four, factory worker's son Victor Duruy taught a famous historian's class.
  • Alexandre Colonna-WalewskiAt four, Alexandre Colonna-Walewski visited exiled Napoleon on Elba. Islanders mistook him for Napoleon's heir.
  • Michel NeyMarshal Michel Ney gave the order to fire at his own execution. Napoleon had called him "the bravest of the brave."
  • Louis de BroglieCould matter behave like a wave, as light can behave like a particle? Louis de Broglie asked this in 1924.
  • Michael Andreas Barclay de TollyRussians called Barclay de Tolly a coward and rumored he was Napoleon's agent. His retreat in 1812 was later vindicated.

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