Places in History: Rest of the World

This page is about places that have historical significance for one reason or another. It may be a place where some significant event occurred (e.g. the Bay of Pigs), or it may have had a significance at some point or period in history that it no longer has (e.g. Calais), or it may simply be somewhere that's of interest for historical reasons (e.g. France's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior).

See also Places in History: United Kingdom.

English Possessions in France

Came with the Norman Conquest in 1066; lost in 1204, during the reign of King John; his son, Henry III, renounced his claim to it in the 1259 Treaty of Paris		Normandy
Came with Henry II in 1154; lost in 1204, along with the above; Henry III renounced his claim to it in 1259		Anjou
Also came with Henry II, but in 1552 with his marriage; confiscated by Philip VI of France in 1337, and finally lost in 1453 as a result of defeat in the Hundred Years' War		Aquitaine
Also came with Henry II, through his wife Eleanor, as part of the Duchy of Aquitaine; lost in 1453, as a result of defeat in the Hundred Years' War		Gascony
Captured by Edward III in 1347 (ten years into the Hundred Years' War), and formally assigned to English rule by a treaty of 1360; England's only possession in France following defeat in that war; recaptured by the French in 1558		Calais

Hong Kong

Ceded to Britain in perpetuity under the Treay of Nanking (1842) following the First Opium War		Hong Kong Island
Ceded under the First Convention of Peking (1860) following the Second Opium War		Kowloon Peninsula
Ceded on a 99–year lease, under the Second Convention of Peking (1898), in the wake of China's defeat in the First Sino–Japanese War (1894–1895)		New Territories
Britain returned control of Hong Kong (including all of the above) to China		1 July 1997

Other

City in northern Pakistan, where Osama Bin Laden lived from 2005 and where he was killed by US forces in 2011; his house was destroyed by Pakistani authorities in 2012. Also home to the Pakistan Military Academy		Abbottabad
Region of Georgia, declared independence in 1991 along with South Ossetia, over which Russia (recognising it as an independent state) fought a war in 2008 with Georgia, which considers it to be a Russian–occupied territory		Abkhazia
Moroccan resort destroyed by an earthquake in 1960		Agadir
Abandoned Roman Catholic mission in San Antonio, Texas, where approximately 200 Texian defenders including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and commanded by Lt. Col. William B. Travis, died during an assault by Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna, following a 13–day siege, on 6 March 1836		The Alamo
Sarah Palin's home state: she was its 9th governor, from 2006 to 2009		Alaska
Suffered an earthquake of magnitude 9.2 (on the Richter scale) in 1964, devastating one of its largest cities
The Évian Accords (1962) led ultimately to the independence of		Algeria
Cave in Cantabria, Spain (near Santander), famous for its Palaeolithic paintings (discovered in 1879)		Altamira
Indian city: scene of a massacre by British troops in 1919, when they opened fire on a crowd gathered (illegally) to celebrate a historic and religious festival and protest the arrest and deportation of two national leaders; 379 people were killed and approximately 1,200 injured – 192 seriously		Amritsar
France's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is underneath the		Arc de Triomphe
Last of the 48 contiguous US states to join the Union (14 February 1912 – 39 days after New Mexico)		Arizona
First US state to rejoin the Union after the Civil War		Arkansas
Volcanic island in the South Atlantic, 800 miles north–west of St. Helena: claimed by Britain in 1815; used as an air base during World War II, and as a staging post during the Falklands conflict (1982)		Ascension Island
Prison in New York state where 39 people were killed in a riot in 1971		Attica
Seat of the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War		Barcelona
1,500 US–sponsored Cuban exiles made a bungled attempt to invade Cuba, in 1961, at		Bay of Pigs
Playa Girón and Playa Larga are more specific features of
Terry Waite, special envoy of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, was held captive from 1987 to 1991 in (Middle Eastern city)		Beirut
An estimated 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in 2020, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless, and leading to the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet six days later
Present–day DR Congo was annexed in 1908 by		Belgium
Present–day Rwanda and Burundi, then known as Ruanda–Urundi, were ruled from 1922 to 1962 by
Britain's oldest colony		Bermuda
Indian city where a leak of methyl isocyanate gas at a pesticide factory, owned and operated by US chemicals corporation Union Carbide, caused an estimated 3,800 deaths in 1984		Bhopal
The Great Molasses Flood of 1919, when a storage tank containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst, resulting in 21 deaths and over 150 people injured, took place in (US city)		Boston
Intended site of the first British penal colony in Australia – where Captain Cook had landed in HMS Endeavour 18 years earlier, in 1770; originally known as Stingray Harbour (Captain Arthur Phillip moved the colony to Sydney Cove, Port Jackson – Sydney Harbour – five days after landing, due to concerns over the lack of fresh water and the risk of disease posed by the swampy land)		Botany Bay
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remarried, in 1975, in (country)		Botswana
Town in New Hampshire, where a conference was held in 1944 to discuss post–war international payments; led to the foundation of the IBRD and the IMF		Bretton Woods
The Battenberg Mausoleum is the tomb of Prince Alexander I (1857–1893), the first ruler of (modern European country)		Bulgaria
The Mossi Kingdoms formed what is sometimes referred to as an Empire, from the 11th century until 1896 when it was taken over by the French, in (modern African country)		Burkina Faso
City of Greek classical antiquity: gave its name to the Eastern Roman Empire, which lasted until the fall of Constantinople (as the city came to be known in late antiquity) to the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453		Byzantium
Britain's last possession in France, lost during the reign of Mary Tudor		Calais
Capital of British India until 1911		Calcutta
More familiar name for Naval Support Facility Thurmont, Maryland – also once known as Shangri–La		Camp David
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize after signing a peace agreement at (US location)
City on the southern shore of the Straits of Gibraltar: captured by Portugal in 1415, and ceded to Spain in 1668; remains part of Spain today		Ceuta
Military base in Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein was hanged in 2006 and his cousin, Ali Hassan al–Majid (a.k.a. Chemical Ali) in 2010		Camp Justice
Name (in English) of the most famous crossing–point in the Berlin Wall – the best–known symbol of the Cold War – located at the junction of Friedrichstrasse, Mauerstrasse and Zimmerstrasse		Checkpoint Charlie
Nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine: scene of a catastrophic nuclear accident in 1986, that occurred during a late–night safety test		Chernobyl
US city that beat New York, Washington DC and St. Louis in the competition to hold the World's Columbian Exposition (a.k.a. World's Fair), held in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America – and which included the original Ferris Wheel; also hosted a second World's Fair 1933–4		Chicago
Almost destroyed in 1871 by a fire, caused (according to a newspaper report whose author admitted in 1893 that he'd made it up) by a cow kicking over a lantern in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O'Leary
St. Valentine's Day Massacre (14 February 1929)
Alexander Graham Bell's first long–distance telephone call, in 1892, was from New York to
Largest city on New Zealand's South Island, devastated by an earthquake in 2011, with the loss of 185 lives		Christchurch
Site of a terrorist attack on 15 March 2019, in which two mosques were targeted and 51 people were killed, and which was described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "one of New Zealand's darkest days"
Forest in Picardy, northern France, where the Armistice of 11 November 1918 to end World War I and the French surrender to the Nazis on 22 June 1940 were both signed (at a place now known as the Glade of the Armistice)		Forest of Compiègne Compiegne
Mediterranean island: ruled by Genoa from 1284, ceded to France in 1768 (under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles), after a 58–year struggle for independence; incorporated into the French state in 1789		Corsica Compiegne
The Minoan civilisation, flourishing from about 2700 to 1400 BC – described on Wikipedia as "Europe's first advanced civilization" – was chiefly based on (Mediterranean island)		Crete
Overrun by the Mycenaean civilization (from mainland Greece) in 1420 BC; settled by new waves of mainland Greeks after the Bronze Age collapse (c. 1200 BC); conquered by Rome in 69 BC; became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire on its division in the 3rd century AD; attacked by Vandals in 467, Slavs in 623, Arabs in 654 and the 670s, and again in the 8th century; also suffered major earthquakes in 365 and 415; finally conquered by Andalusian Arabs in 820, but restored to Byzantine control in 960–1; sold to Venice after the Crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204, but immediately seized by Genoa; recaptured by Venice in 1212; conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1669; briefly yielded to Egypt in the 1830s; gained independence in 1898; claimed as part of Greece in 1912, recognised internationally as such in 1913
Territory annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014		Crimea
Early passage through the Appalachian mountains – named after an English county, gave Lonnie Donegan the title of his first UK No. 1 hit single!		Cumberland Gap
Capital of the Inca empire, from the 13th century until the 16th–century Spanish conquest, and the official Historical Capital of Peru		Cuzco (Cusco)
Part of the Ottoman Empire from 1571; placed under British protection in 1878 under the terms of the Congress of Berlin, and formally annexed by Britain in 1914; declared a British colony in 1925, gained independence in 1960		Cyprus
Proclaimed as an independent state in 1983 but still not internationally recognised; became in 2014 the last place in Europe to legalise sex between men		Northern (Turkish) Cyprus
Named in the Old Testament, and still exists – said to be the world's oldest continuously–inhabited city		Damascus
Region of western Sudan, centre of a bitter conflict from 2003 (said by some to be between Arab and African populations)		Darfur
BP oil rig that caused a major spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010		Deepwater Horizon
Europe's oldest monarchy (since AD 710)		Denmark
The Treaty of Kiel (1814) transferred the Kingdom of Norway to Sweden, from
The largest of the seven atolls in the British Indian Ocean Territory, whose local population was forcibly removed between 1967 and 1973 to make way for a joint US–UK military base		Diego Garcia
Republic of Ragusa: founded in 1358, reached its commercial peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy by Napoleon in 1808; centred in (city on the Dalmatian coast, now in Croatia)		Dubrovnik
US Air Force base near Los Angeles, used for Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight and for early Space Shuttle landings (also later as a bad weather backup)		Edwards Air Force Base
Italian island to which Napoleon was exiled in May 1814 (following the Treaty of Fontainbleu, which ended his reign as Emperor of France); he escaped in February 1815, returning to France for the so–called 'Hundred Days'		Elba
Island in the South Shetland group (off Antarctica) on which Sir Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance landed on three lifeboats in 1916, after the ship was crushed in the ice and sank (see also South Georgia)		Elephant island
Atoll in the Marshall Islands (central Pacific Ocean) where the first hydrogen bomb was detonated in 1952		Eniwetok
Airport serving Kampala (Uganda), where Israeli troops rescued passengers from a hi–jacked Air France plane in 1976		Entebbe
On entering the American War of Independence, Britain's confidence was boosted by the fact that in 1770, France had withdrawn its support for Spain in a diplomatic standoff over		The Falkland Islands
Name given to the site, near Calais, of a summit in 1520 between Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France		Field of Cloth of Gold
Incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1809, having been gradually integrated into Sweden from the late 13th century; declared itself independent following the 1917 Russian Revolution; after a brief flirtation with a monarchy in 1918, became a republic in 1919		Finland
The Mannerheim Line was built in the 1920s and 1930s (in two stages) as a defence against invasion from the Soviet Union, by
Capital of Italy from 1865 to 1871 (preceded by Turin, succeeded by Rome)		Florence
Ceded to the USA by Spain in 1819, in exchange for $5 million and the USA's renunciation of any rights to Texas (under the terms of the Adams–Onis Treaty)		Florida
The first modern state to be recognised by the Catholic Church; known as the 'Eldest Daughter of the Church'; its king was styled 'the Most Christian King' from around 1400		France
Allied to Scotland (from 1295) by the Auld Alliance
The Indochinese Union (1887–1954) – consisting of present–day Vietnam and Cambodia, and Laos from 1893 – was a colony of
From 1910 to 1958, present–day Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, the Congo (not DR Congo) and Gabon were known as		French Equatorial Africa
The only remaining European possession on the South American mainland (an overseas département of France)		French Guiana
From 1895 to 1958, present–day Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger were known as		French West Africa
Japanese nuclear power station damaged following the tsunami of March 2011		Fukushima
Poland's principal seaport, on the Baltic coast, where the trade union Solidarność (Solidarity), led by Lech Walesa, emerged in 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard		Gdańsk
Italian state other than Venice that was ruled by a Doge (from 1339 until its extinction in 1797); the Doge's Palace can still be visited in the city of the same name		Genoa
The so–called 'Rose Revolution' of 2003 marked the end of Soviet era leadership in		Georgia
The third African country (after Morocco and Tunisia) to gain independence – the first in sub–Saharan Africa, and the first to gain independence from Britain (6 March 1957)		Ghana
Ceded to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), and remains under British control today		Gibraltar
John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in 1969, in
Three Provisional IRA members (Sean Savage, Daniel McCann, Mairéad Farrell) were shot dead by undercover British SAS agents, in 1988 – as featured in a controversial ITV This Week documentary – in
Voting area that produced the highest percentage vote in favour of Remain, in the UK's 2016 referendum on European Union membership
Farm near Oslo, gave its name to a ship burial found there and excavated in 1880		Gokstad
Range of hills, previously under Syrian control, occupied by Israel since 1967		Golan Heights
The Moors' last stronghold in Spain (finally falling in 1492)		Granada
1943–9: the Government army, supported by the UK and USA, defeated the so–called Democratic Army – the military branch of the Communist Party – in (European country)		Greece
Caribbean island invaded by US forces in 1983 following the execution of opposition leader Maurice Bishop		Grenada
Place in New Jersey, famous as the site of the Martian landings in Orson Welles's War of the Worlds (1938)		Grover's Mill
Town, now part of Mexico City: gave its name to the treaty signed there in 1848, which ended the Mexican–American War, and by which Mexico ceded 55% of its territory to the United States		Guadalupe Hidalgo
Camp Delta, Camp Echo, Camp Iguana, Camp X–Ray (Cuba): collectively		Guantanamo Bay
San Francisco district, epicentre of the Beat and Hippie cultures of the 1950s and 60s – named after two streets that meet there		Haight–Ashbury
Discovered and named the Sandwich Islands by Captain Cook, 1778		Hawaii
The Battle of Nu'uanu, in which more than 700 warriors were driven off a cliff, took place in 1795 and was a key event in the unification of
Region of Saudi Arabia that includes Mecca and Medina: declared independent (from the Ottoman Empire) in 1916, was a founder member of the League of Nations before being incorporated into Saudi Arabia		Hejaz
Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 AD, along with Pompeii		Herculaneum
Belgium's national stadium (Brussels), where 39 Juventus fans died as a result of disturbances with Liverpool fans before the 1985 European Cup Final (since renamed the King Baudouin Stadium)		Heysel
Farm in Namibia that gave its name to the largest known meteorite, discovered there in 1920 (thought to have landed some time in the last 80,000 years, it's still there)		Hoba West
Became a British colony after the First Opium War (1839–42); transferred to China in 1997, on the expiry of a 150–year lease agreed in 1847 and under the terms of a joint Sino–British declaration made in 1984, becoming China's first provincial–level special administrative region. In 2014 there was a protracted protest against electoral constraints, known as the Umbrella Revolution		Hong Kong
Castle where the Defenestration of Prague took place in 1618		Hradschin
The Crown of St. Stephen was used in the coronations of kings of (Central European country)		Hungary
Invaded by Soviet forces to quell an uprising, in 1956
Ruled by Norway, 1262–1397; came under Danish rule in 1523, after Sweden's secession from the Kalmar Union; achieved independence in 1918; voted in a 1944 referendum to sever its remaining ties with the Danish monarchy and become a republic		Iceland
Country that opposed Britain (and other NATO allies, to a lesser extent) in the so–called Cod Wars (1958–61, 1972–73 and 1975–76)
Building in Philadelphia in which the Liberty Bell was housed until 1976 (moved in anticipation of the Bicentennial celebrations – now housed in a specially–built pavilion nearby)		Independence Hall
Mohammad Reza Shah (family name Pahlavi; deposed by a revolution in 1979) was the last monarch of		Iran
First country in the world to institute a comprehensive nationwide ban on smoking in workplaces – including bars, restaurants etc. (2004)		Ireland (Republic of)
The first permanent British settlement in America (visited by the Queen in 2007 to mark its 400th anniversary)		Jamestown, Virginia
In 1992, US President George H. W. Bush vomited at a banquet held by the Prime Minister of (country)		Japan
Treetops Hotel (in Aberdare National Park), where Princess Elizabeth was staying at the time her father (George VI) died, is in (country)		Kenya
Region of Yukon territory (north–west Canada) that gave its name to a gold rush that occurred in the late 1890s (1896–9)		Klondike
Town in Co. Mayo where a vision of the Virgin Mary was seen in 1879		Knock
Capital of the Abruzzo region (Italy): prone to earthquakes, notably in April 2009		L'Aquila
Cave complex in south–western France, famous for its prehistoric paintings – discovered in 1940 by four teenage boys		Lascaux
Modern country: colonised by Italy from 1912 to 1943; known as Italian North Africa 1911–27, two separate colonies (Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania) 1927–34, and by its current name 1934–43		Libya
City near the southern tip of Cyprus, associated with the events of the Crusades and the marriage of Richard I to Berengaria in 1191		Limassol
Place in Washington DC where Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream" speech (1963)		Lincoln Memorial (on the steps of)
Destroyed by an earthquake in 1755		Lisbon
Riots in 1992 followed the acquittal of four police officers on charges of assaulting Rodney King (an African–American taxi driver) in 1991. All occurred in		Los Angeles
French name for the territory sold by Napoleon to the USA in 1803 for 60 million francs ($11.25 million) – covering 0.83 million square miles of the mid–west, from New Orleans to the Canadian border – about 23% of the current area of the USA. (Including interest and cancellation of debts, the USA eventually paid $23.2m in total)		Louisiane
Town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, a place of Catholic pilgrimage since 1858 when Bernadette Soubirous (St. Bernadette) saw a vision of the Virgin Mary		Lourdes
Subject of a dispute in 1867 between France and Prussia (the ... Crisis), which was resolved by the Treaty of London, requiring the dismantling of its formidable fortifications (which took 16 years)		Luxembourg
Dutch town where the Treaty on European Union was signed in 1992 (drafted in 1991, came into force in November 1993; changed the European Community to the European Union, and led to the creation of the euro)		Maastricht
Gives its name to a geological formation where important fossil remains were discovered in 1764
The Gunpowder Plot was hatched at
Returned to China in 1999, by Portugal (which had leased it as a trading post in 1557 and been given perpetual occupation rights in 1887)		Macau
Hit by four bomb blasts on commuter trains, 2004		Madrid
Island nation in the Arabian Sea: joined the Commonwealth in 1982, 17 years after gaining independence from the UK; left in 2016, in protest at allegations by the other nations of its human rights abuses and failing democracy; rejoined in 2020 after showing evidence of functioning democratic processes and popular support		(The) Maldives
Under Spanish rule from 1282; given to the Knights Hospitaller in 1530 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V; invaded by Napoleon in 1798; became a British protectorate in 1800; remained British, and officially became a part of the Empire, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1814); awarded the George Cross in 1942; gained independence in 1964, and became a republic in 1974		Malta
US state that provided the land on which Washington and the District of Columbia were built		Maryland
Fortress overlooking the Dead Sea (now in Israel), where 953 Hebrews made a final stand against the Romans in AD 73, and committed suicide rather than be captured and enslaved		Masada
Hunting lodge where Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera were found dead in 1889		Mayerling
Inlet of the Ross Sea, on whose shore both Shackleton (1901) and Scott (1911) built bases for their Antarctic expeditions		McMurdo Sound
De facto capital of Australia, 1901–27 (interim seat of the parliament and government, before they moved to Canberra)		Melbourne
Real estate development in Raritan township, New Jersey, where Thomas Edison set up his home and laboratory in 1876; he developed some of his most famous inventions there, including the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, before moving to larger premises nearer to New York in 1887		Menlo Park
58 new–born babies were rescued seven days after an earthquake in 1985, in		Mexico City
Mediterranean island: captured by the Royal Navy in 1708, and became a British possession (along with Gibraltar) in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); captured by the French in 1756, during the Seven Years' War, but returned to Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763); ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Versailles (1783); recaptured by Britain in 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, but repossessed by Spain in the Treaty of Amiens (1802)		Minorca
Village on the border of counties Offaly and Tipperary, Republic of Ireland (population 313 in 2016): visited by Barack and Michelle Obama in 2011, as his great–great–great–grandfather Falmouth Kearney had emigrated from it to the United States in 1850		Moneygall
The Battle of the Little Bighorn took place (in 1876) in what is now (a US state since 1889)		Montana
Archipelago that includes Trimouille Island, where the first British nuclear weapons test was carried out in 1952		Montebello Islands
US city: scene of a bus boycott in 1955, led by Martin Luther King		Montgomery
Peninsula on the coast of Co. Sligo, where Viscount Palmerston had a country house (Classiebawn Castle) built, which was inherited by the wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten; the Mountbattens spent many summers there, and it was while sailing off that coast that he was assassinated in 1979		Mullaghmore
Headquarters of Hitler's Nazi movement in the 1920s		Munich
City in which the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom signed an agreement that allowed German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia, and came to be widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement
The mediaeval town of Dachau – site of the first concentration camp built by Nazi Germany (opening on 22 March 1933) – is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north–west of
Modern country: gained independence from South Africa in 1990 – having been a German colony from 1884 to 1918 and mandated to the UK, under administration by South Africa, by the League of Nations in 1920		Namibia
Modern country: gained independence (from Spain) in 1648, as a result of the Eighty Years' War		The Netherlands
Name given by Francis Drake to the area on the Pacific coast of North America (probably northern California) where he landed in 1579		New (or Nova) Albion
Name given to Australia in 1644 by Abel Tasman (New South Wales was named after British settlement in 1788, but this name continued in popular usage to refer to the entire continent until the 1850s)		New Holland
The first atomic bomb test explosion took place on 16 July 1945, in (US state)		New Mexico
Pacific island, between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia: settled in 1856 by exiles from Pitcairn (which could not sustain the increase in population); previously (1788–1814 and 1825–55) used as a penal colony; now forms an Australian 'external territory', along with nearby Phillip Island and Nepean Island (both uninhabited)		Norfolk Island
Country that voted not to join the EEC in 1972, prompting the resignation of its government		Norway
Region of southern Egypt and northern Sudan – named after its people – formerly a number of independent kingdoms, the last of which collapsed in 1504		Nubia
The post–war Nazi war trials of 1945–6 were held in (German city)		Nuremberg
Ukrainian port on the Black Sea: scene of a workers' uprising in 1905, supported by crew of the battleship Potemkin, who sailed there following their mutiny against Tsarist officers (as famously depicted in Eisenstein's 1925 film)		Odessa
US city where at least 168 people were killed and more than 680 injured in a bomb attack on a Federal government building in April 1995 – the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history, at least until 2022; Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh was executed in 2001 after being found legally responsible for the atrocity		Oklahoma City
Ancient city in Syria' Homs province – a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980: scene of intense fighting during the Syrian Civil War, 2015–17, when large parts of it were destroyed by ISIL		Palmyra
Capital of the kingdom of Navarre – famous nowadays for the festival that takes place there in July each year (the Running of the Bulls)		Pamplona
Acquired 'in perpetuity' by the USA in 1903; passed to the country of origin in 1979, but controlled by the USA from 1990 to 1999 under the terms of the 1977 treaty (50 miles by 10)		Panama Canal Zone
Hosted the 1900 World Exhibition		Paris
Interpol was reconstituted after WWII in
State of mediaeval Russia, on the western slopes of the Urals (absorbed into Russia in 1505): gave its name to the last geological period of the Paleozoic era		Perm (Permia)
De facto capital of the USA before Washington (until 1800): venue of the First and Second Continental Congresses, 1774 and 1775–6, and of the adoption of the US Constitution (later ratified by individual states) on 17 Sep 1787		Philadelphia
Legionnaire's disease first appeared in 1976, at an ex–servicemen's conference in
Live Aid was staged, on 13 July 1985, in London and
Modern country: part of the Spanish Empire for over 300 years, becoming a republic in 1899 following a revolution; fought a bloody war with the USA 1899–1902, after which it became an unincorporated territory of the USA, and later a US Commonwealth; finally gained independence in 1946		Philippines
Pacific island on which the Bounty mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, landed in 1790 and formed a colony		Pitcairn
Traditional site (not definitively authenticated) where the Pilgrim Fathers stepped ashore in 1620, on the coast of what would become Massachusetts		Plymouth Rock
Present–day Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principé, Goa (India), East Timor and Macau were all formerly colonies of		Portugal
Often described as "England's oldest ally"; in fact, the alliance that dates from a treaty of 1373, and was ratified in 1386 by the Treaty of Windsor, is the oldest in the world that's still in force
Capital of the Hapbsburg Monarchy or Empire, 1583–1611 (see also here)		Prague
Inlet of the Gulf of Alaska (on the south coast of Alaska), site of a major environmental disaster in 1989 when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef		Prince William Sound
Area of high ground where the "golden spike" was driven in 1869 to mark the meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, completing the first US Transcontinental Railroad		Promontory, Utah
City in which French Kings were traditionally crowned		Rheims (Reims)
The last of the original thirteen US states to ratify the Constitution		Rhode Island
De facto capital of Portugal, from 1808 to 1822		Rio de Janeiro
The first Earth Summit (1992) was held in
Johannesburg suburb where Nelson Mandela and others were arrested in 1963, giving its name to their subsequent trial		Rivonia
Town in New Mexico: gave its name to an incident in 1947, believed by conspiracy theorists to have involved the crash–landing of one or more alien spaceraft		Roswell
French city in which Joan of Arc was imprisoned and burnt (1431)		Rouen
African country, administered by Belgium as a UN trust territory 1945–61, after which the majority Hutu tribe seized power from the Tutsi minority (who had been favoured under Belgian rule), eventually killing hundreds of thousands of them – particularly in the "genocide" of 1994		Rwanda
Town where the French Red Cross opened a camp in 1999 to house refugees intending to use the Channel Tunnel to seek asylum in Britain – closed 2002		Sangatte
Country that allowed women to drive in 2018, lifting the world's last ban		Saudi Arabia
South African township where 69 people were killed and 178 wounded in 1960 when police fired on a demonstration against the pass laws		Sharpeville
Indian hill resort: summer capital of British India, 1865–1939; now the capital and largest city of Himachal Pradesh		Shimla (Simla)
Peninsula, forming the Asian part of Egypt: occupied by Israel following the Six–Day War (1967); returned to Egypt over a three–year period following a peace treaty signed in 1979		Sinai
Birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi (1942); his final stronghold in the civil war of 2011, and the place where he was killed by rebel forces; largely destroyed in the associated fighting		Sirte (pronounced Sirt)
Mahatma Gandhi practised law from 1893 to 1914, in		South Africa
First US state to secede from the Union, leading to the Civil War (1860)		South Carolina
South Atlantic island to which Sir Ernest Shackleton and three crew members sailed in a lifeboat from Elephant Island, in 1916, and whose mountainous terrain they crossed on foot to reach the whaling station where they were able to summon help to rescue the rest of the expedition party		South Georgia
Region of Georgia, declared independence in 1991, over which Russia (recognising it as an independent state) fought a war in 2008 with Georgia, which considers it to be a Russian–occupied territory; see also Abkhazia. (Note: North Ossetia lies on the other side of the Caucasus mountains and is undisputedly part of Russia)		South Ossetia
South African township (Johannesburg) where police opened fire on a protest march (over the government's policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English) on 16 June 1976, killing 23 people; name is short for South West Township		Soweto
From 1778 to 1968, what is now Equatorial Guinea was a colony of		Spain
Prison where Nazi war criminals were held until August 1987, when Rudolf Hess hanged himself there – after which it was demolished		Spandau
Collection of States of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714: comprising most of the modern states of Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, southern Netherlands, and western Germany, with the capital being Brussels		Spanish Netherlands
Bosnian town where over 8,000 Muslims were massacred by units of the Bosnian Serb Army under the command of General Ratko Mladić, in July 1995		Srebrenica
Volcanic island in the South Atlantic: under British control since the days of Francis Drake, governed by the British East India Company from 1658 to 1802		St. Helena
Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled there in October 1815, following his defeat at Waterloo, and died there in 1821
Zulu king Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo (son of Cetewayo) was exiled there from 1890 to 1897, as were more than 5,000 Boers taken prisoner during the second Boer War (1899–1902)
Founded by Peter the Great, 1703; capital of Russia, 1713–28 and 1732–1918 (before Moscow)		St. Petersburg
German name for the areas along the borders of Czechoslovakia that were populated by German speakers – occupied by Germany in October 1938 as sanctioned in the infamous Munich Agreement (of September 1938)		Sudetenland
The epicentre of one of the strongest earthquakes on record (8.9 on the Richter scale), which sent a tsunami crashing over the coastlines of southern Asia on 26 December 2004, causing the deaths of an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries, was off the north–west tip of (Indonesian island, and the world's sixth–largest)		Sumatra
European country that didn't give women the vote until 1971		Switzerand
Square in Cairo, focal point of the 2011 popular uprising against president Hosni Mubarak – name means Liberation Square – so named after the 1919 revolution, but only officially after the 1952 revolution which established the republic		Tahrir Square
The world's worst aviation disaster: 583 people died when two aircraft collided on the ground, in 1977; took place on (largest of the Canary Islands)		Tenerife
Last of the 11 southern US States to secede from the Union, on the outbreak of the Civil War (1861)		Tennessee
Greek city: historically has a large Jewish population, particularly after 1492 when Jews were expelled from Castile and Aragon; nicknamed 'the mother of Israel' by the Jews, and 'the Jerusalem of the Balkans' by others; incorporated into the Kingdom of Greece in 1913 (previously part of the Ottoman Empire); now Greece's second largest city		Thessaloniki (Salonica)
Its Christian population was addressed in two of the Biblical epistles attributed to Paul (one of which may have been his first, the other may have been co–authored by Timothy)
Island in the Susquehannah River, hear Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: scene of the West's worst ever nuclear accident, in 1979, when radioactive steam was released following the failure of a water pump at a nuclear power station		Three Mile Island
Peking Square – the world's largest public square, name means 'square of Heavenly Peace' – where 1,000 unarmed protesters were massacred by troops in 1989		Tiananmen Square
Name given to the part of the British Mandate of Palestine that was east of the Jordan River: a protectorate from 1921, it gained independence in 1946 and was renamed Jordan in 1950 after it annexed the West Bank		Transjordan
Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya (opened in 1932), where Princess Elizabeth was staying when she became Queen		Treetops
The world's most remote inhabited island (in the South Atlantic, 1,300 miles from St. Helena); all 264 of its inhabitants were evacuated to the UK in 1961 after a volcanic eruption – most families returned in 1963		Tristan da Cunha
River that gave its name to an event that occurred in Siberia in 1908 – possibly the "air burst" of a meteoroid or comet, about 5 miles above the earth's surface		(Stony) Tunguska
Capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1720, and the first capital of the united Italy (from 1861 to 1865)		Turin
Country where the names of the months and the days of the week were changed in 2002 (including January being named after the President, and April after his mother)		Turkmenistan
The Hat Law, passed in 1925, prohibited the wearing of fezzes in (country – then an ewly–formed republic		Turkey
Town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika (now in Tanzania) where Henry Morton Stanley met Dr. David Livingstone in 1871		Ujiji
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place from November 2004 to January 2005, in (country)		Ukraine
Union formed by Egypt and Syria in 1958 (dissolved in 1961)		United Arab Republic
Island owned by the Workers' Youth League, the youth wing of the Norwegian Labour Party, and venue of an annual summer camp – where Anders Breivik shot 69 people including 55 teenagers in July 2011		Utøya
Pennsylvania headquarters of the US Continental Army, 1777–8 (during the Revolutionary War) – now a National Historical Park		Valley Forge
City where Jews were forced to live in a specified area from 1516, until 1797; this became the first place to be known as 'the ghetto'		Venice
The 14th US state (first to join the Union after the original 13 – 4 March 1791 – 279 days, or 9 months and 6 days, after Rhode Island became the 13th on 29 May 1790)		Vermont
Capital of the Habsburg Monarchy or Empire, 1440–1583 and 1611–1804 (see also here)		Vienna
Sigmund Freud first practised in
US college where a deranged gunman murdered 33 students including himself, 2007		Virginia Tech
Texas town where 76 members of the Branch Davidian sect were killed in 1993 when the FBI launched an attack on the Mount Carmel Centre, following a 50–day siege that started when government agents were prevented from executing a search warrant to investigate allegations of illegal weapons		Waco
Originally formed the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement		Wall Street
City in which Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream" speech in 1963 (see also here)		Washington, DC
Disputed territory on the North West coast of Africa, relinquished by Spain in 1976 and since occupied largely by Morocco		Western Sahara
German town, on the River Elbe, where the Protestant Reformation has been said to have begun in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his '95 Theses' (against the sale of indulgences) to the door of All Saints' Church		Wittenberg
German city, gave its name to the edict of 1521, which declared Martin Luther a heretic and an outlaw		Worms
Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918 at (city known from 1918 to 1991 as Sverdlovsk)		Yekaterinburg (a.k.a. Ekaterinburg)

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23