Europe

Martin Luther, a Catholic scholar and priest, was unhappy with the practice of selling indulgences. Incensed, he wrote a long argument against the practice called Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. 

On October 22, 1797, André-Jacques Garnerin, a French innovator, climbed into a hot air balloon and rose 3000 feet over Paris. A crowd gathered to watch. Then, Garnerin climbed over the balloon's basket and jumped. Behind him a large silken fabric trailed, then opened, filled with a rush of air. He floated to earth safely, the first parachutists.

On October 14th in the year 1066, a battle took place in England - Battle of Hastings, that in many ways determined the course of the next one thousand years of western history. The Norman army of Duke William of Normandy in France fought the English Army of King Harold II. Harold had been on the throne only a few months, and contested Duke William's right to rule England.

By spring of 2019, a restaurant near the southernmost point of Norway will open- and it will be five meters under water. The first-ever underwater restaurant in Europe is aptly named “Under”.

Little recognized by most people, Jason Lewis on October 6, 2007 became the first human to circumnavigate the planet entirely under his own power, using no motors and no sails.

On October 6, 1889, the famous Moulin Rouge opened its doors in Paris’s 18th district. The Eiffel Tower was constructed the same year, showcasing the cultural pioneering that dominated Paris at the time.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, East Germany began facing mass emigration and protests, which eventually led to holding free elections and negotiations with West Germany regarding unification.

For constant travellers airports are an unavoidable part of their world-exploring experience but it is not the most enjoyable part of traveling.  Airports around the world are generally overcrowded, chaotic and stressful environments packed within a generic structure.  However, there are a few airports throughout the former Soviet Union that are aesthetically and conceptually different.  They are repurposed military bases that were used during WWII.  The wooden airports in Russia are still mostly functional and surprisingly beautiful, however it takes a grain of courage to fly into such places. Solovetsky Islands For those seeking an adventurous trip to the Solovetsky Islands in Russia, an archipelago located at the White Sea, the Solovetsky Airport offers a beautify gateway to the destination. Visitors to the Solovetsky Islands can discover one of the most important holy cities for the Russian Orthodox Church.  The UNESCO World Heritage site holds a 5th century Monastery built [...]

In 1791, the French National Assembly was seeking a new method of execution. Former methods were considered too inhumane, such as the infamous "breaking on the wheel". Assembly member Joseph-Ignace Guillotin suggested the construction of a device to decapitate the accused with a steel blade.

On this day in 301 AD, San Marino, one of the world’s smallest and oldest republics, was founded by a stonemason named Marinus from the island of Rab, located in present-day Croatia. Marinus fled persecution and sought refuge in the Apennine Mountains, where he established a small Christian community. This would eventually grow into the nation known as the Republic of San Marino, located within modern-day Italy.

On August 25, 1944, Paris celebrated liberation from Nazi occupation—a historic moment that echoed the city’s own revolutionary spirit seen in the Storming of the Bastille over 150 years earlier.

On August 21, 1911 a patron of the Louvre Museum in Paris walked into the Salon Carré where Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was on display for all to see. On this day, however, the famous painting was not on the wall where it had hung for the past five years. A search of the museum turned over no clues - the painting had been stolen. The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion; he in turn, tried to implicate Pablo Picasso. Both were exonerated. Two years later, a man approached the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and tried to sell the Mona Lisa to them. The police were notified and immediately arrested former Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia who had stolen the painting by hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat. Peruggia claimed the painting belonged in Italy and that he had stolen it for [...]