Mathew Lyons

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.

The Death of a Mnemonist

Solomon Shereshevsky died on 1 May 1958. He dreamt of being a hero but achieved greatness of another kind.