Part of a town or city in which members of a minority group live, usually as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Historically it has applied specifically to a Jewish area.
Ghetto
Fact of the Day
English bishop St. Wulfstan was said to have performed a number of miracles, including curing a woman of arthritis by writing a letter, cursing a tree to death that had offered shade to gamblers, and preaching to the slave-traders of Bristol so well that they abandoned their business.
Quote of the Day
"Water knee deep and up to the waist in places. Rumours of being relieved by the Grand Fleet.
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~ British First World War soldier writing about the trenches in his diary
On This Day
1494 Thanks to the bungled diplomacy of Piero the Unfortunate, the Medici family was exiled from Florence, which was free of their rule until 1512.
1799 Napoleon, returned from successful campaigns abroad, started the Coup of 18 Brumaire that overthrew the Directory. It would lead to the establishment of the Consulate and, in many historians' eyes, the end of the French Revolution.
1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne after being presented with a fait accompli.
1923 Hitler and Ludendorff led about 2,000 men out of a Munich beer hall towards the Bavarian Defence Ministry in an attempt to seize power in Munich. They were blocked by a police cordon and four police officers and sixteen NSDAP members were killed. Hitler was arrested shortly afterwards but his trial, instead of putting an end to Nazism, merely gave him an excellent publicity platform.
1938 The Nazis led a wave of anti-Jewish violence across Germany that would become known as Kristallnacht.
1989 The Berlin Wall began to fall as Communist-controlled East Germany opened its border checkpoints.