#18- Reinhard Heydrich

Out of all the Nazis, Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was at the top of the Nazi heap. Along with being a senior SS officer and being considered as a possible successor of Hitler, Heydrich was the head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RHSA), the Reich Security Head Office, but Heydrich was most important for attending the Wannsee Conference of 1942, where Nazis agreed plans for the extermination of the European Jews. Heydrich started out in a good childhood, being able to play violin and many sports, but his prospects went down when he was dismissed from the German Navy in 1931 for unknown reasons. Many believe that Heydrich was dismissed for spying on naval personnel for the Nazis. This idea was strengthened by the fact that soon after the event, SS Leader Heinrich Himmler appointed Heydrich to expand the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) soon afterwards. After 1932, Heydrich started hopping up the Nazi hierarchy. Having done well in recruiting people to the SD, he was given control of the Gestapo, or the Geheime Staatspoliziei, in 1934. The Gestapo was the civil secret police. Two years later, the Gestapo was merged with the criminal-investigation police into the SiPo (Sicherheitspolizei, or Security Police) under Heydrich. After becoming the head of the RHSA in 1939, he ran both the SD and the SiPo. Heydrich was cruel, competitive, and aggresive, which led to Himmler giving him the nichname 'Genghis Khan'. It was Heydrich who planned the ruse if a Polish attack on German forces at Gleiwitz that later led to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. In November of 1938, Heydrich was made the head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, which he used to assert SS dominance over Jewish Policy, which culminated at the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942, where the 'Final Solution' of the Jewish people was sealed. In September of 1941, Heydrich became the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. This post was important to the Nazi war effort, because many of Germany's guns and tanks came from that area of Europe. Heydrich understood this, and held strict rules for those who did not reach their daily quota and those who took part in any resistance. Heydrich's success led Hitler to consider promoting Heydrich to the position of governor of Paris. This news led British inteligence to protect the French Resistance network from Heydrich's ruthless ministrations. In December of 1941, the British sent Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik, two Czechs who had fled their country in 1941, to Czechoslovakia to assassinate Heydrich. Heydrich was known for his display of riding in an open car. On May 27, 1942, Kubis and Gabcik used this habit to their advantage. When Heydrich's car was turning a bend in the suburbs of Prague, Gabcik pulled out a Sten 9mm submachine-gun, but the magazine jammed, and would not work, so Kubis threw an anti-tank grenade at the car in desperation, which exploded on the car's boot, but also in Kubis's face. Heydrich, at the time, appeared to be only lightly hurt, for he was able to jump out of the car and chase after the two assassins, but his gun, also, was not loaded. After a while, the shock of the wounds set in and Heydrich had to send his driver after the assassins instead of himself. Although Himmler sent Heydrich his best doctors, Heydrich's horsehair upholstery had allowed bacteria and toxins to give Heydrich septicaemia, and he died on June 4th of 1942. Two weeks later, Gabcik and Kubis were cornered by German troops in the church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Prague. After the two realized that the Germans would overrun the church, the two went into the crypt and committed suicide. Heydrich might have been governor of Paris had he lived a few years longer, and he might have uncovered the French Resistance while there, but he did not survive, helping the allies along with their fight.

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ASSASSINATED!
By Steven Parissien

A Wagon for Your Viewing Pleasure

#19- Conrad of Montferrat

Conrad of Montferrat (1145-1192) was a very well-known man during his time. He was the cousin to Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I, King Louis VII of France, and Duke Leopold V of Austria. He was known across Europe for his courage and commanding skills, being able to defeat Emperor Fredrick at Camerino in 1179, but was also trained as a diplomat. In 1187, he had one of the best positions in all of Europe when he went to join his father, Duke William V of Montferrat, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099 by the crusaders. While Conrad was on his way to Jerusalem, the kingdom was under attack by the Seljuk Turks, led by Saladin. When Conrad arrived, both his father and Guy if Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, were prisoners of Saladin, captured in the Battle of Hattin. Because both Jerusalem and Acre had been captured, Conrad sailed to the port of Tyre, which was undergoing a siege, in hopes of rescuing it. Supposedly, Saladin offered to give up Conrad's father if Conrad gave up Tyre, but Conrad is said to have told Saladin that Conrad's father had lived a long life, and pointed his own crossbow at his father. Whatever happened, though, Conrad got his father back, and in December of 1187, Conrad launched a counter-attack and drove away Saladin's troops for the moment. Saladin later released Guy of Lusignan, who demanded that Conrad hand over the keys to the city, but Conrad said that Guy had lost the throne and would not let Guy and his wife to enter for quite some time. Conrad tried to reinforce his claim on the throne by marrying Isabella of Jerusalem, who, unfortunately, was already married, but Isabella's mother had the old marriage annulled, and the couple married on the 24th of November in 1190. In the mean time, Guy of Lusignan travelled to Europe, to the new King of England, Richard the Lionheart, and won Richard over to help in the Crusades and win Guy's throne back, but Conrad had already won back the fortress of Acre, so a compromise was made, with Guy as King and Conrad as the sole heir of the kingdom as well as the governor of Tyre, Beirut, and Sidon. As the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell, tension increased between Richard and Conrad, two of the greatest military commanders of the time, until 1191, when a dispute over ownership of Seljuk hostages led to Richard killing all the hostages and Conrad fleeing to Tyre. Saladin no longer needed to fight, with the strife between Richard and Conrad doing the job for Saladin. After Saladin had approached Richard, to make an alliance, Conrad approached Saladin to make an alliance, but in April 1192, Richard and Conrad held a vote to see who should be king, and Conrad was elected. Richard gave Guy of Lusignan Cyprus as a consolation prize, which he ruled until his death in 1194. Conrad's win was short lived, being attacked by two members of a sect of Shia Islam, known as 'hashhashins' (where we get the word 'assassin' from) on April 28, 1192. Although one of the assassins was killed, the other, under torture, said that Richard had sent them, which is very likely, because Saladin had also been attacked by the hashhashins, but no one knows for sure. Richard was a marked man when he reentered Europe. When one of Conrad's nephews recognized Richard, captured and imprisoned Richard, and in February of 1194, after being tossed from noble to noble, Richard was released. Although the hashhashins thrived for another 80 years, their power was lost with the invasion by the mongols.
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ASSASSINATED!

By Steven Parissien

#20 Rasputin

Like with the explorers, I have made a list of the most influential assassinations in history on a worldwide scale.

20 Rasputin
Grigory Yefimovich Novykh (c.1865-1916) was better known as Rasputin, meaning 'dissolute'. Although we do not know when Rasputin was born, we do know that he was first heard of in the Russian court around 1903. He was said to be a monk from Siberia who could heal the sick and accurately predict drought. In December of 1903, he appeared in the religious academy in St. Petersburg. Rasputin was known by some royal members already, including the Grand Duke Nicholas, whose dog Rasputin was said to have healed, and Grand Duchess Militsa, who introduced Rasputin to the royal palace to see if he could cure the tsar's son, Alexis, a chronic hemophiliac. Although the royal doctors were very suspicious, Rasputin seemed to have a healing affect every time the son had internal or external bleeding. Rasputin later admitted to a friend that the cure he used was a combination of hypnosis, Siberian drugs, and willpower. Rasputin used his position in the royal household to gain influence over the Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandra. He referred to the royal couple as fellow peasants, which Nicholas II was fine with, but the rest of the Russian nobles saw as an outrage. When government ministers tried to complain about Rasputin's behavior. Even the Metropolitan of Russia, the country's leading churchman, complained, but was told that the imperial family's affairs were none of his business. Rasputin was being kept safe by the tsarina's adoration for him. When WW1 broke out, Rasputin deeply opposed the war, but his drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, and willingness to accept bribes kept his reputation from getting any better. By 1915, almost all new ministers needed Rasputin's approval and Rasputin was known to yell at the prime minister. Rasputin, at one point in the war, wanted to go and bless the troops before they fought, but Grand Duke Nicholas, the commander-in-chief (who was once a supporter of Rasputin) threatened to hang Rasputin if he showed up. This threat caused Rasputin to tell the tsar that the army would fail unless the tsar personally led the army. Tsar Nicholas II decided to go to battle, and while he was away, Rasputin convinced Tsarina Alexandra to fill all government and military offices with Rasputin's handpicked candidates. On the battle field in 1916, all Russian troops were retreating except for the army of General Brusilov, and Russia's economy was in ruins. It was as Russia retreated that the Russian ministers finally stood up against Rasputin. Led by Prince Felix Yusupov, a noble who attended Oxford and was to marry the tsar's niece, a group of ministers and nobles plotted against Rasputin. The prince invited Rasputin to his house to meet his wife, who was not there. While Rasputin was at the house, the prince fed him poisoned cakes and wine in the cellar while the rest of the conspirators waited upstairs. After seeing that the poison had no effect on Rasputin, Yusupov gathered the other conspirators and the group went back to the cellar and shot Rasputin in the chest at point blank range. After pronouncing the body dead, some of the conspirators went home, while the rest discussed what they should do next from the main room of the house. When the prince went down to check on Rasputin, Rasputin opened his eyes, grabbed the princes throught and ripped of Yusupov's shoulder piece before the prince ran back up the stairs. The conspirators heard Rasputin climb up the stairs, and as he came through the door, shot him two more times. As he was lying on the floor, the assassins found that Rasputin had not died, but was still breathing with one eye open. The prince then grabbed a metal press and beat it against Rasputin's head until the assassins took Rasputin down to the river and threw it in, but Rasputin didn't drown. When his body was found three days later, an autopsy showed that Rasputin had died of hypothermia. After being buried by the tsar on January 3rd of 1917, but was dug up again a month later during a revolution, and his body was burned in a bonfire. Yusupov was never arrested or tried, and later wrote an account of the plot while in exile. Rasputin's death was not very important, other than the fact that it freed the royal family from his power, but this death is very entertaining and drawn out.

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ASSASSINATED!
By Steven PArissien

Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart

Today in History:

Today (May 21) was the day that both Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic. It was in 1927, at 7:52am on May 20th that Charles Lindbergh went down Roosevelt Field in The Spirit of St. Louis, a monoplane only 28 feet long. After leaving Long Island, Lindbergh went north to Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, crossing the Atlantic over the night. After sighting a small fishing boat, he knew he was reaching Europe, and soon flew over England, Ireland, and soon afterward, on May 21st, landed at the Le Bourget Airport, surrounded by 10,000 onlookers, who mobbed his airplane. Lindbergh had flown 3,610 miles in 34 hours.The next day, in front of the American Embassy in Paris, President Gaston Doumerque of France gave Lindbergh the Legion of Honour. After coming back to the U.S. (by boat) President Calvin Coolidge of the United States presented him with the Distinguished Flying Cross. When Lindbergh arrived in New York, the financial market closed for 'Lindbergh Day', and a parade with 10,000 soldiers and sailors went through the city. On May 21st in 1932, exactly 5 years after Lindbergh arrived in Paris, the American, Amelia Earhart, landed in a field near Londonderry, Northern Ireland after flying 15 hours. She became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Earhart recieved the National Geographic Society gold medal from President Herbert Hoover of the United States and the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, and soon became an early feminist icon. Both Lindbergh and Earhart changed history by what they did on May 21st.

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Great Stories from History for every day of the year
By W.B. Marsh and Bruce Carrick

The Washington Monument

Of all the monuments in America, few are as famous as the Washington monument. In the early 19th century, the country decided to pay tribute to the man who led the fight for independence against the British. After leading the Continental Army, Washington was elected as the president of the United States in 1789. In 1833, Congress formed the Washington National Monument Society. After three years of raising money, the Society had accumulated $28,000 dollars, which they used to hold a competition for the design. In the end, Robert Mills won. With an estimated cost of $ 1 million, the tower would stand 555 feet and 5.5 inches tall and would be 55 feet and 1.5 inches wide. The construction of the obelisk started on July 4, 1848, but stopped in 1854, when the monument was only 152 feet tall. This halt was partly due to the slowing of contributions and partly because of the beginning of the American Civil War, but in 1876, when the country celebrated 100 years of being independent, Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill for the government to fund the completion of the monument. The dedication ceremony took places the day before Washington's birthday in 1885, but the public was not allowed in until 1888. The Washington Monument now stands over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Lincoln Memorial, showing the greatness and glory of the nation's first president.

The U.S. Supreme Court Building

In the year, 1932, construction on the U.S. Supreme Court Building started. Designed by Cass Gilbert, construction was finished in 1935. Although the first session of Supreme Court was held in 1790, the official building was not built much later on. At first, Supreme Court was held in the Royal Exchange Building of New York, but was moved to Independence Hall, and later to Philadelphia's City Hall. When the capitol was moved to Washington D.C., the supreme court was given space in the Capitol Building. From 1860 to 1935, when the new Supreme Court Building was finished, the Old Supreme Court Chamber was used to hold court sessions, but in 1929, President William Taft, who was once a Supreme Court Justice, persuaded Congress to give the Supreme Court a permanent home. The building was built on a scale to give the Judicial Branch of government the same look of dignity as the other two branches of government. Above the 16 columns on the west entrance, are the words, "Equal Justice Under Law", and the west entrance doors are cast in bronze. The east entrance of the building has the words "Justice the Guardian of Liberty" above it. On May 4th [Today] in 1987, the Supreme Court building was designated a National Historic Landmark.