According to legend, when the Venetians tried to kidnap it the Holy Table of St Sophia in Constantinople made a dramatic escape.

In 480 BC Leonidas, King of Sparta, frustrated the advance of Xerxes the Persian just long enough to change the course of the war — and history.

A headstrong Irish boy became part of the Greek resistance movement that won independence in 1832.

A woman convicted of a crime she did not commit took her case to a higher power.

Under a moonlit sky in October 1942, Allied and Axis forces met in battle on the sands of the Egyptian desert.

Scotsman Samuel Greig so impressed his superiors at the Admiralty in London that he was sent as an adviser to the Russian Imperial Navy.