A country

Spain

3 stories set here.

The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Guernica, Basque Country

The German Condor Legion Air Raid on the Basque Town of Guernica on Market Day 26 April 1937 That Killed Perhaps 300 Civilians and Produced Picasso's Painting

The German Condor Legion's bombers attacked the small Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain on the afternoon of 26 April 1937 — a market day. The attack killed approximately 250-300 civilians and destroyed about 75 percent of the buildings. Pablo Picasso's monumental painting Guernica, completed two months later, became the canonical 20th-century anti-war image.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Cape Trafalgar

The Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Who Defeated the Combined French and Spanish Fleets Off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 and Was Shot Through the Spine During the Battle

Horatio Nelson led the British fleet to a decisive victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Twenty-two of the 33 enemy ships were captured or destroyed. Nelson was shot through the spine by a French sniper at approximately 1:15 p.m. He died at 4:30 p.m. He was 47. The body was preserved in a brandy cask for the voyage home and is buried under the central dome of St Paul's Cathedral.

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The Footnote June 24, 2026 · Las Palmas, Canary Islands

Christopher Columbus Believed in a Smaller Earth Than Eratosthenes Had Measured and That Is Why He Sailed

The Eratosthenian Earth circumference (about 250,000 stadia, accurate to 2%) was the standard ancient figure but had been substantially undermined by a competing late-antique calculation by Posidonius. Columbus took the smaller Posidonian figure as his planning baseline. If he had used Eratosthenes's number, he would never have sailed.

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