20 Best Castles Ever

• 1078
  William the Conqueror begins the construction of the Tower of London on the north bank of the River Thames to fortify key position, making foundation of one of the most famous castles in the World
• 1144
  The Knights Hospitallers begin expanding a fortress 140 kilometers northwest of Damascus known as Krak des Chevaliers
• 1150
  Edinburgh Castle, one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, is built upon the plug of an extinct volcano by the king David I
• 1157
  Eltz Castle, one of three castles in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed, is built on a 70-metre rock spur in Koblenz, Germany, by the Eltz family
• 1190
  The King of Castile Alfonso VIII starts rebuilding of a Muslim wooden fort on a rocky crag in Segovia into a stone castle and makes it a royal residence
• 1200 ± 10
  King John's Castle is built on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland by order King John of England
• 1202
  The Predjama Castle is built at the mouth of a huge cave at Postojna, Slovenia
• 1213
  Kilkenny Castle is built by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland to control a fording-point of the River Nore
• 1250
  Cité de Carcassonne, an ancient Roman citadel on a hill on the right bank of the River Aude, France, is reinforced and extended by French government, becoming a strong frontier between France and the Crown of Aragon
• 1289
  Conwy Castle, a medieval fortification in Conwy, Wales, is built as part of the extensive program of castle-building initiated by Edward I after his conquest of Wales
• 1385
  Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, builds, with the permission of Richard II, a castle known as Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, in order to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War
• 1406
  Malbork Castle, the largest castle in the world by surface area, is completed by the Teutonic Knights in Marienburg, the administrative center of the Order in Prussia
• 1452
  Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II begins construction of a new fortress called Rumeli Hisar on the Constantinople side of the Bosporus in order to control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait
• 1520
  The fortified monastery on Mont Saint-Michel, an island commune in Normandy, is completed, becoming one of the most recognizable landmarks in France
• 1547
  Château de Chambord, the largest château in the Loire Valley and one of the most famous ones in France is built at the behest of the king of France Francis I
• 1586
  George Khevenhüller, a Carinthian nobleman, who purchased Hochosterwitz Castle on a high rock in Duchy of Carinthia, modern-day Austria, fortifies it to defend the region against Turkish invasions
• 1609
  Himeji Castle, a hilltop Japanese castle located in Himeji, Japan is completely rebuilt into a large castle complex by Japanese daimyo Ikeda Terumasa
• 1857
  Schwerin Palace, a palatial castle in Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, is built by architect Georg Adolph Demmler
• 1867
  Construction on the third Hohenzollern Castle, the seat of the House of Hohenzollern, is completed by Hohenzollern scion Frederick William IV of Prussia atop Berg Hohenzollern, a 234-metre bluff
• 1882
  Neuschwanstein Castle, a Romanesque Revival palace in southwest Bavaria, Germany, is completed by Ludwig II of Bavaria

20 Most Important Events in Earth's History

• 4.560 Billion Years Ago
  The planet Earth forms from the protoplanetary disk of dust grains and rocks attracting by the force of gravity at the outer edge of the habitable zone in the accretion disc revolving around the young Sun
• 4.533 Billion Years Ago
  Planet Earth and the hypothesized protoplanet Theia collide sending large number of moonlets into orbit around the Earth which eventually coalesce to form the Moon
• 3.6 Billion Years Ago
  Prokaryotes, the first simple cells without nucleus and mitochondria, that use carbon dioxide as a carbon source and oxidize inorganic materials to extract energy, appear, probably in deep-sea thermal vents or atmosphere
• 2.9 Billion Years Ago
  Photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, which use water and carbon dioxide as a reducing agent and produce oxygen as waste product, evolve, creating the oxygen-rich atmosphere
• 2.1 Billion Years Ago
  Eukaryotes, complex cells which contain nucleus enclosed within membranes, derive from prokaryotes via fusion of some cells and free-living bacteria, which become mitochondria and start providing energy to the cell by converting sugars
• 1.2 Billion Years Ago
  First simple multicellular organisms, mostly consisting of cell colonies of limited complexity, evolve independently in some groups of single cells, which allows organisms to exceed the size limits
• 580 Million Years Ago
  The accumulation of atmospheric oxygen allows the formation of an ozone layer, which blocks ultraviolet radiation, permitting the colonisation of the land
• 540 Million Years Ago
  The Cambrian explosion, the relatively rapid, lasting 70 million years, appearance of most major animal phyla accompanied by major diversification of organisms, begins
• 435 Millions Years Ago
  The first primitive plants move onto land and rapidly diversify, having evolved from green algae living along the edges of lakes
• 365 Million Years Ago
  First amphibians, four-limbed backboned tetrapods, evolve from the lobe-finned fishes, gradually gaining adaptations, such as lungs and nares, which will help them occupy land and give rise to reptiles and mammals
• 320 Million Years Ago
  The first reptiles evolve from advanced reptiliomorph labyrinthodonts, a newt-like amphibians that gain scaly skin and begin laying eggs with hard shells outside the water
• 220 Millions Years Ago
  Adelobasileus, the first known mammal, which resembles modern rats and has sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk to nourish their young, evolves from reptiles called cynodonts
• 200 Million Years Ago
  Pangaea, the large supercontinent, begins to rift into two continents: Laurasia, which contains North America and Eurasia, and other supercontinent - Gondwana, containing Africa, South America, India, Antarctica, and Australia
• 199,6 Million Years Ago
  Triassic-Jurassic extinction event wipes out twenty percent of all marine families and all large non-dinosaurian archosaurs other than crocodilians on land, leaving the dinosaurs the dominant land animals
• 155 Million Years Ago
  Archaeopteryx, one of the first birds and transitional fossil between feathered dinosaurs and modern birds, appears following evolution of some other early birds, such as Anchiornis and Aurornis
• 130 Million Years Ago
  The first flowering plants, whose boast structures attract insects and other animals to spread pollen, which causes a major burst of animal evolution through co-evolution, appear
• 65.5 Million Years Ago
  An asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter falls on the coast of Yucatán in Mexico and causes the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event with eradicating about half of all animal species, including the dinosaurs but excluding their descendants, the birds
• 65 Million Years Ago
  Purgatorius, a rat-sized placental mammal with mass about 40 grams, becomes the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, giving rise to monkeys, apes and humans
• 2.5 Million Years Ago
  Homo habilis, the earliest known species of the genus Homo, evolves from Hominidae in East Africa, beginning usage of primitive stone tools for hunting and work
• 200 Thousand Years Ago
  Anatomically modern human, who has more gracile frames, reduced brow ridges and vertical forehead, evolve from archaic Homo sapiens in East Africa

4 Nice Blogs about History

Hi, dear readers. Today we want to post an extra post, in which we are going to share some information about sources where you can dig a bit of interesting information about different historical topics. Pay attention that all blogs are located on different platforms.

The first blog is hosted on Dreamwidth platform, which have simple design, but allows easily to add images and embedded elements. Here is an example of a nice blog that contains a lot of curious information. This blog is written by a friend of our, Alex Morz.

Of course, you know that the most popular blog platform in the Internet is Wordpress. There is also a very good account on Wordpress which we want to recommend. We have already shared with you a wonderful historical resource. It is a blog that posts information about this day in form of timeline every day. Enjoy reading every morning about the crucial moments occurred on the day.

Another blog platform is Weebly, which lets to experiment with design and easily combine a post full of media information. This is a wonderful example of a blog implemented on this platform. The blog explains information about very wide rage of topics: from Islam to Haiti Revolution.

Ethiopian Empire

• 1137
  Mara Takla Haymanot overthrows the last ruler of Axumite dynasty, founded by Jewish queen Gudit 40 years before, and starts the Zagwe dynasty, the first dynasty in Empire of Ethiopia
• 1150 ± 50
  The Kebra Negast, an Ethiopian text claiming that the Queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to see Solomon and that he tricked her into sleeping with him and bearing him a son, appears
• 1197
  Lalibela Cross, a large and elaborately decorated processional cross, is made from one piece of metal in Ethiopia
• 1270
  Solomonic dynasty, whose members claimed patrilineal descent from King Solomon of Israel, is founded in Ethiopia by Yekuno Amlak, a member of the Habesha people, from whom Abyssinia gets its name
• April 9, 1520
  The first European diplomatic mission to Ethiopia, sent by the Portuguese, arrives at Massawa, followed by their arrival at the imperial encampment of Emperor Dawit II in Shewa on 9 October
• March 9, 1529
  Imam Ahmad Gragn defeats the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit II in the Battle of Shimbra Kure, the opening clash of the Ethiopian–Adal War
• 1557
  The Ottomans capture Massawa, a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea, isolating Ethiopia from the rest of the world
• 1636
  Emperor Fasilides founds the city of Gondar, which becomes the capital of Ethiopia for the next two centuries
• May 7, 1769
  Zemene Mesafint, or Princes era, a period in Ethiopia, when the empire was divided into several regions with no effective central control, begins since the overthrow of Emperor Iyoas
• April 13, 1868
  Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, commits suicide with a pistol presented him by Queen Victoria at Magdala as the British troops storm the citadel
• January 26, 1887
  Abyssinian Emperor Yohannes IV defeats Italians in the Battle of Dogali
• March 10, 1889
  In Ethiopia Emperor Yohannes IV is killed in a war against the dervishes during the Battle of Gallabat
• March 25, 1895
  Italian troops invade Abyssinia, starting First Italo-Ethiopian War
• December 8, 1895
  Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri out in Battle of Amba Alagi during the First Italo–Ethiopian War
• March 1, 1896
  Ethiopia defeats Italy at the Battle of Adwa during the First Italo-Ethiopian War and ensures the first victory of an African state over a European colonial power
• November 2, 1930
  Haile Selassie, a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history and the messiah in the Rastafari movement, is crowned Haile Selassie I, the 225th emperor of Solmonic Dynasty in Abyssinia
• October 2, 1935
  Italy invades Abyssinia, today Ethiopia, beginning Second Italo-Abyssinian War, which concluded with the exile of Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie and the conquest of Abyssinia by Benito Mussolini
• May 9, 1936
  Italy takes Addis Ababa, annexing Abyssinia and incorporates it with Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea into the new colony of Italian East Africa
• August 27, 1942
  Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia ends slavery imposing severe penalties, including death, for slave trading
• June 26, 1945
  United Nations Charter, the foundational treaty of the United Nations, is signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, California, United States
• September 12, 1974
  A Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg" led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, depose Emperor Haile Selassie and establish communist state known as People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia