Curated playlist
Heads of state and government who were later imprisoned
- 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…
- Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini was named after a Mexican president. His socialist father chose the name to honor Benito Juárez.
- Indira GandhiParty bosses chose Indira Gandhi as prime minister because they thought she was weak.
- Mary, Queen of ScotsWhen Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded, her auburn hair turned out to be a wig. Underneath she had short grey hair.
- Lady Jane GreyLady Jane Grey was queen of England for only nine days in July 1553. Her own Privy Council then turned on her.
- Louis XVIOn the morning of his execution, Louis XVI asked, "Any news of La Pérouse?"
- Édouard DaladierCheering Parisians greeted Édouard Daladier in 1938, and he privately called them fools.
- Charles I of EnglandCharles I wore two shirts to his own execution. It was bitter cold, and he feared shivering would look like fear.
- Ion AntonescuHitler's ally Ion Antonescu at times refused to hand Romanian Jews to German death camps.
- Jefferson DavisWhy was Confederate president Jefferson Davis never tried for treason? Prosecutors feared an acquittal.
- Eleanor of AquitaineEleanor of Aquitaine married two kings and bore two more. She was duchess of Aquitaine for decades, and she ruled that land jointly with her husbands and with two of her sons, Richard I and John of England. Even so, nobody wrote her life…
- Richard II of EnglandRichard II of England was born in the Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux on the 6th of January 1367. Contemporary sources claimed that three kings were present at the birth: "the King of Castile, the King of Navarre and the King of Portugal".…
- Valerian (emperor)Emperor Valerian became the first Roman emperor captured alive in battle. Persia's Shapur I took him at Edessa in 260.
- Patrice LumumbaPatrice Lumumba was not scheduled to speak at Congo's independence ceremony, but he rose anyway.
- SukarnoYouth leaders took Sukarno from his house by force to make him declare independence.
- Imre NagyHungary's Imre Nagy once informed for Stalin's NKVD police, then led a revolt against Soviet rule.
- Wojciech JaruzelskiWojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland on the 13th of December 1981. Later he helped end Communist rule.
- Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz, a submarine commander, ended up as Germany's president. Hitler named him successor.
- Manuel NoriegaManuel Noriega received his first payment from the United States in 1955, and it came to just $10.70. He belonged to a socialist youth group then, and the money is reported to have been a reward for informing on his comrades. By the 1980s…
- Hideki TojoHideki Tojo shot himself in the chest as American soldiers surrounded his house.
- PuyiPuyi, the last emperor of China, was born in Beijing on the 7th of February 1906 and died on the 17th of October 1967. A commentator named Wen Yuan-ning once quipped that Puyi had been "made emperor three times without knowing why and…
- 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…
- Erich HoneckerErich Honecker voted for his own removal as East Germany's leader. The Politburo ousted him in October 1989.
- Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević died in a prison cell in The Hague while still on trial for war crimes.
- Vlad the ImpalerIn the last days of June 1462, the army of Sultan Mehmed II reached the Wallachian town of Târgoviște and found it deserted. Its ruler, Vlad the Impaler, was gone. What he had left behind was a field of stakes. The chronicler Laonikos…