Mathew Lyons

Death of the King of Siam

On 1 October 1868 King Mongkut – who reigned as Rama IV – passed away having trod a delicate course to keep Thailand free of European empires.

The Great Fire of Smyrna

As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the Greek and Armenian quarters of Smyrna were set ablaze on 13 September 1922 by the vengeful Turkish army.

Verlaine Shoots Rimbaud

On 10 July 1873, decadent duo Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud’s poetic frenzy ended with a gunshot.

Decoding Linear B

In a BBC interview on 1 July 1952, self-taught linguist Michael Ventris announced that he had deciphered the Linear B script of Minoan Crete.

Death of a Samurai Legend

Miyamoto Musashi was finally defeated on 13 June 1645, but it wasn’t a sword that laid the formidable samurai low.