The Puritans were a group of religious zealots as a response to King Henry VIII’s newly-formed Church of England. Puritans faced friction as their numbers multiplied, forcing them to emigrate to Holland and later New England.

For nearly 300 years, Vikings or Norsemen sailed from Scandinavia to Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East and even North America, acquiring slaves, concubines and culture along the way.

Beginning around 800 A.D., navigators set out from Southeast Asia in double-hulled sailing canoes across vast stretches of open ocean, using star maps, sea swells, current and drift to people Polynesia.

Laika the space dog was the commander of Sputnik 2 and the first living being to visit space. The program had no plan to safely return Laika, leading to the first death in the space race.

The Knights Templar was a protective order in France that established a dominant network of banks, allowing Christian pilgrims to access their money. The order spread throughout Europe, but was eventually dissolved by King Philip.

The Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4th, 1989, saw some 300,000 Chinese troops descend on Beijing, murdering protestors, bystanders and students sleeping in their tents.

In response to his objections to the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences, Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses which led Pope Leo to condemn Luther as a heretic and ultimately the Protestant Reformation.