The First Crusade

The armies of the First Crusade set off for the Holy Land in 1096. Warriors had gathered from around Europe, and a force of about 60,000 soldiers (of which some 6,000 were knights) and at least 30,000 noncombatants was amassed, known as the “Princes’ Crusade.” By 1098, the campaigning forces had taken major cities including Nicaea and Antioch, but not without suffering significant losses. By the time the Crusader army reached its primary objective, Jerusalem, in June 1099, there were only around 1,300 knights and 12,000 infantry remaining. Undeterred, they laid siege to Jerusalem, breaching the walls on July 15. The Crusaders then spent two days massacring the inhabitants and pillaging the city. The First Crusade was a bloody victory for Europe, and Jerusalem returned to Christian rule.

The Second Crusade

Despite the outcome of the First Crusade, holding territory in the Holy Land was no easy task. So-called “Crusader states” were formed, but the first of them, the County of Edessa, was retaken in 1144 by Muslim forces. In response, Pope Eugene III called for a Second Crusade, this time to be led by European kings. A force of 60,000 people assembled and marched east. The campaign, however, was a failure. The Crusader armies became stretched out, and after numerous skirmishes and a handful of sieges, the whole endeavor fizzled away. 

Saladin and Richard the Lionheart

Next came the rise of Saladin, one of the most famous figures of the Crusades. The Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria brought forces from both nations under his own control and began attacking the Crusader states. Most importantly, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem — the prize of the First Crusade — in 1187, sending shockwaves around Europe. The pope soon called for a Third Crusade to recapture Jerusalem. The kings of Europe responded — most notably Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart due to his reputation as a fearsome warrior. So began one of the greatest military rivalries not only of the Crusades, but of warfare in general. Richard and Saladin developed a mutual respect and admiration for each other through their conflicts, and became the defining figures of the Crusades. The Third Crusade ended in 1192 with the Crusader armies recapturing the vital cities of Acre and Jaffa. The Crusaders retook most of the territory captured by Saladin, but failed to recapture Jerusalem. 

The End of the Crusades

The Crusades didn’t end there. There were at least eight Crusades in total, until the period finally ended with the fall of the city of Acre in 1291. This marked the end of any major European presence in the region, and no further large military campaigns were organized. Between 1095 and 1291, a number of popular campaigns also took place, but without papal approval, so they are not considered part of the Crusades. This includes the infamous and somewhat bizarre “Children's Crusade,” led by a 12-year-old shepherd named Stephen. The details of this unofficial quest are questionable and may well have been hugely exaggerated by contemporary sources, which claim that as many as 30,000 children set off toward Jerusalem. Whatever the actual numbers, the Children’s Crusade was a failure and never even reached the Holy Land — but it can lay claim to being the first European youth movement. 

Six-Day War (6 Days)

Some short wars are comparatively low on casualties and consequences, but that was not the case with the Six-Day War, also known as the June War or Third Arab-Israeli War, which began on June 5, 1967. Friction between Israel and its Arab neighbors had been constant since the 1949 Armistice Agreements, and tensions had become dangerously heightened by the time Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli vessels and mobilized its military into defensive positions along the border with Israel. Israel launched a series of preemptive airstrikes against Egypt, on whose side Syria and Jordan both later entered the war. Despite lasting only six days (in part because the Israeli military objectives were very limited), the war resulted in more than 20,000 Arab and almost 1,000 Israeli casualties, while fundamentally reshaping the region’s landscape in terms of territory and military strength. 

Russo-Georgian War (5 Days)

On August 7, 2008, tensions between Russia and the former Soviet nation of Georgia spilled over into full-scale war. Russia invaded Georgia under the pretext of a “peace enforcement” operation in aid of the two Russian-backed, self-proclaimed republics — South Ossetia and Abkhazia — that existed within Georgian territory, unrecognized by most of the international community. The land, air, and sea invasion included incursions into undisputed Georgian territory, with Russia brazenly demonstrating its military strength in the region. Hundreds of Georgian servicemen and civilians were killed during the conflict, which ended on August 12 when French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a ceasefire agreement. The Russo-Georgian War is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century and, in retrospect, a sign of further Russian aggressions to come. 

Hundred Hours’ War (100 Hours)

The Hundred Hours’ War, also known as the Football War, was a brief but brutal conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. In the weeks prior to the war, both countries had played each other in a series of heated World Cup-qualifying soccer matches, all of which were followed by violent scenes. The matches were just a small part of rising tensions between the two countries, which had fallen out over land reform, immigration issues, and the expulsion of thousands of Salvadoran laborers from Honduras. Tensions reached a boiling point on July 14, 1969, when El Salvador launched a military attack against its Central American neighbor. After a little over four days of fighting and around 3,000 lives lost, international diplomatic efforts resulted in El Salvador reluctantly withdrawing its troops.

Anglo-Zanzibar War (38 Minutes)

On August 25, 1896, the pro-British sultan of Zanzibar died. The British had their own preferred replacement in mind, but Prince Khālid ibn Barghash went against the British protectorate and took control of the sultanate. Two days later, the British arrived with two cruisers, three gunboats, and 150 marines, as well as about 900 Zanzibari soldiers. The new sultan, meanwhile, barricaded himself inside the palace, protected by almost 3,000 of his personal soldiers and supporters. The British cruisers bombarded the palace, setting it ablaze and causing around 500 casualties among the sultan’s soldiers; only one British soldier was seriously wounded. The whole engagement lasted between 38 and 40 minutes, at which point Barghash surrendered. It is considered the shortest war in recorded history. 

Baseball Legend Ted Williams Flew Fighter Jets With Astronaut John Glenn

The Korean War saw the unlikely collaboration of two icons of American history: Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, and John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. In 1952, while Williams was still in the middle of his baseball career and before Glenn’s historic space flight, the two men were paired together in the same fighter jet in Korea. Williams was Glenn’s wingman for roughly half of the 39 missions Williams flew. Both men praised each other’s piloting skills, and Glenn, not yet the famous astronaut he would become, even admitted to being a little starstruck to be serving with a living major league legend — though he also said that Williams always remained humble about his baseball stardom.

The War Saw the First Dogfight Between Two Fighter Jets

The Korean War saw the advent of one of the icons of modern warfare: the fighter jet. Jet-powered fighter planes had started to appear in small numbers at the end of World War II, but it wasn’t until the Korean War that they became widely used. The world’s first jet-powered “dogfight,” in which skilled pilots try to outmaneuver each other in a close-range aerial battle, took place during the conflict. Soviet fighter jets became such a common sight during the Korean War that an entire region of North Korea earned the name “MiG Alley,” after the huge number of dogfights between Soviet MiG-15 and American F-86 Sabre fighter jets. This powerful new technology made the Korean War quite unlike any that had come before it.

The United Nations Assembled a Military Force to Fight in the War

Although the United States led the war effort in South Korea, it was supported by a multinational military force of 22 countries from the United Nations. This coalition, known as the United Nations Command, was established in 1950 in order to aid South Korea in its war against North Korea. The force participated in all parts of the war, from ground combat and air strikes to logistical planning and the eventual armistice negotiations. The United Nations Command still exists, and maintains a presence in the Korean Demilitarized Zone to help maintain the armistice between North and South Korea.

The War Technically Hasn’t Ended Yet

Armistice negotiations to end the Korean War began in 1951 and lasted for two years, the longest such negotiations in history. While the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended active military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, it was not an official peace treaty. The agreement was adopted by the United Nations Command, the North Korean army, and the Chinese army, but South Korea leaders refused to sign. To this day, no official peace treaty has been signed between North and South Korea, and the two nations still technically remain at war. A tense ceasefire is maintained by the Demilitarized Zone that runs across the Korean Peninsula and divides the two nations, but both sides maintain a heavy military presence there, and the area still sees occasional outbreaks of violence. Despite continued negotiations, North and South Korea have been unable to reach an official peace agreement 70 years after the Armistice Agreement.