Stories of people/events - individuals or mass events
Joan of Arc was a young peasant woman who lived during the last phase of the Hundred Years’ War. This war was a series of military conflicts between France and England which began in 1337 due to an inheritance dispute over the French throne. It ended in 1453. The 116 years of the war saw the rise and fall of several kings and nobles, many of whom are noteworthy in their own right.
The Dahomey Amazons were an all-female Fon military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey, a West African kingdom which was located within present-day Benin. They were dubbed “Amazons” by Western historians who likened them to the mythical Amazons of ancient Anatolia and the Black Sea. In their homeland, they were known as Mino, or Minon, meaning “our mothers.”
Although many people today refer to the wives of ancient Egyptian kings and female Egyptian pharaohs as queens, in ancient Egypt all the people surrounding the king (pharaoh) were referred to by their relationship to him/her. This was not meant to diminish a woman’s role per se, it was simply because all royal titles emphasized the individual’s relationship to the powerful king.
These days we're starting to see a huge variety of books which bring women and girls to the fore, creating positive female role models to aspire to, rather than the never-ending tales which make it appear as if only men ever did anything of note. As a mother I now revel in the wide selection of books available for my reading time with the girls. We particularly enjoy reading about women throughout history who have achieved great things against all odds.
"Brewing", "herbs," "broomsticks," "woman." When one hears these words together, most often the assumption is that the person in question is a witch. Yet brewing has another meaning - one that revolves around the avarice of alcohol. Alewives were women in the Middle Ages through the early modern period who brewed and sold alcohol. Due to the alewives' skills in the kitchen, fashion sense, and the eventual rise of urban guilds, however, the alewife soon became a term synonymous with "witch."
Clark Stanley, the self-styled “Rattlesnake King”, was born in 1854 in Abilene, Texas.
In the 1,600 years since Saint Patrick preached his way across the Emerald Isle, the legends and folk stories surrounding his life have become ever more ingrained in the Irish culture. He is credited with expelling all snakes from Ireland and using a shamrock – a three-leaf clover – to explain the Holy Trinity to the Pagan Irish.
Aeschylus, widely regarded as the “Father of Tragedy,” was one of the first of classical Athens’ great dramatists. He raised the emerging art of tragedy to new heights of poetry and theatrical power. The legendary playwright wrote more than 90 plays and won with half of them at Athenian festivals of Greek drama. For all his skills in theater, however, he’s trending within the circles of modern pop culture thanks to his very bizarre death.
Grace O'Malley was Queen of Umaill, chieftain of the O Maille clan, a rebel, seafarer, and fearless leader, who challenged the turbulent politics of 16th century England and Ireland.