Belgium’s Royal Family at the Front: Leadership, Service, and Valor in WWI

During the First World War, King Albert I of Belgium, who was born in 1875 and reigned from 1909 to 1934, led the Belgian Army directly from the frontlines. Concurrently, his wife Elisabeth served as a nurse at the front, while their young son Leopold, just 12 years old, bravely joined the battle as a private soldier.

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The Formation of Ace Hardware: A Tribute to WWI Heroes

The Ace Hardware Corporation, presently known as the largest hardware retail cooperative on the globe and the biggest non-grocery retail cooperative in America, was established in 1924. This happened when three innovative individuals joined their hardware stores in Chicago, forming what they called “Ace Stores”, a name inspired by the ace fighter pilots of World War I.

After fighting in WWI, A. A. Milne…

After fighting in WWI, A. A. Milne had PTSD so severe, he was reminded of whizzing bullets by buzzing bees, and cannons firing by balloons popping. Wanting a lighthearted distraction and a way to explain to his son the difficulties of war, he wrote Winnie the Pooh stories as his way of doing so.

Before dogfighting was a thing….

Before dogfighting was a thing, enemy pilots would simply exchange waves or shake their fists at one another. At the beginning of WWI, recon pilots would often resort to throwing bricks, grenades, and even rope in hopes that it would get entangled in the enemy’s propellor.

In WWI, many British naval…

In WWI, many British naval ships were painted with “Dazzle Camo”, a camouflage scheme designed not to make them hard to see, but rather to create a confusing perspective that made judging ship type, speed, and direction difficult.