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Curated playlist

Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

  • Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II visited the man who shot him in 1981 and called him a brother.
  • Helmut KohlGerman cartoonists drew Chancellor Helmut Kohl as a pear. He still reunited Germany in 1990.
  • Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson ordered his own supporters to vote against his League of Nations treaty.
  • Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini was named after a Mexican president. His socialist father chose the name to honor Benito Juárez.
  • Józef PiłsudskiJózef Piłsudski robbed a Russian mail train in 1908 to fund his secret army. The haul was 200,812 rubles.
  • Peter II of RussiaPeter II of Russia died at fourteen on the morning of his wedding day. Smallpox killed him as his bride waited.
  • Carol II of RomaniaCarol II of Romania fled in 1940 as gunmen fired on his train. It carried 30 truckloads of his fortune.
  • Elizabeth of RussiaBefore taking Russia's throne, Elizabeth vowed never to sign a death sentence.
  • Catherine the GreatCatherine the Great seized Russia's throne by overthrowing her own husband. The coup came in July 1762.
  • Alexander II of RussiaOn the morning a bomb killed him, Alexander II signed a step toward representative government.
  • Catherine I of RussiaBy some accounts, Catherine I of Russia began as an orphaned servant in Swedish Livonia. She never learned to read.
  • HirohitoEmperor Hirohito's first radio broadcast announced Japan's defeat.
  • Peter the GreatAfter Russia's army was routed at Narva in 1700, Peter the Great had church bells melted into cannons.
  • Philippe PétainPhilippe Pétain left behind a verdict that fits on one line. Charles de Gaulle, who came after him at the head of France, judged that Pétain's life had been "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre". Each of…
  • Galeazzo CianoGaleazzo Ciano voted to overthrow his father-in-law, Mussolini, and was shot six months later.
  • 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…
  • Józef PoniatowskiAt Raszyn in 1809, Józef Poniatowski led a bayonet charge against an Austrian force twice his size.

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