
Oscar Wilde

Back in the day


Champion Race Horse Abducted, Never to be Seen Again

Two years after his record-setting win at the Epsom Derby, the acclaimed Irish racehorse Shergar was loaded into a trailer at gunpoint and abducted by a gang of masked men. At that time, the retired 1981 "European Horse of the Year" commanded a stud fee upwards of £50,000 and was thus extremely valuable. The horse's owners refused to pay the demanded ransom, and police were unable to find him. Shergar was never seen again. Who may have taken him, and what is believed to have been his fate?



The Seleucid Empire

Carved from the empire of Alexander the Great after his death, the Seleucid Empire stretched from India to what is now Bulgaria, and included Babylonia, Syria, and Anatolia. Alexander had died without a viable heir, leaving the empire unstable, and Seleucus—who had served under him—saw his chance. By the year 305 BCE, he had declared himself king of a vast, diverse empire that would persist for centuries. The eventual collapse of the empire was hastened by the revolt of what group of people?

Born on a day like today


Paula Modersohn-Becker

Modersohn-Becker was a German painter who became an important early Expressionist despite her tragically short career. After studying in London and Paris, she helped introduce French Post-Impressionism into German art. She was greatly influenced by her stay at the artists' colony of Worpswede and later shifted from painting landscapes to portraits and still lifes, focusing on the expression of her feelings rather than a portrayal of reality. She died suddenly at 31, shortly after doing what?

Last updated on Friday, 8th February 2013

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