Dictatorships

Manuel Noriega is escorted onto a U.S. Air Force aircraft by agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1990.

Former Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega Dies at 83

He had been serving a 20-year prison sentence for corruption and murder

Franco's tomb features a 500-foot cross.

Spain's Parliament Votes to Exhume a Dead Dictator

Franco’s reign of terror is over—but Spaniards are still making sense of his legacy

The University of London's Senate House inspired Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth. Orwell's wife Eileen Blair worked in the building during World War II, when it was the real headquarters of the Ministry of Information.

George Orwell Wrote '1984' While Dying of Tuberculosis

Orwell, like thousands around the globe today, struggled with tuberculosis for many years before finally succumbing to the disease

Samuel Zemurray was sometimes called "The Banana Man."

Where We Got the Term “Banana Republic”

Hint: it’s not a great moment in American history

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler

Reports on the rise of fascism in Europe were not the American media's finest hour

Don't look for official memorials to the dead dictator—there won't be any.

Why There Won’t Be Any Monuments to Fidel Castro in Cuba

El Comandante had one last dictate

The statue of Lenin where it formerly stood on the roof of the Red Square building on E Houston Street.

A Statue of Lenin Has Finally Come Down from Red Square...in New York City

One of Manhattan’s strangest buildings has lost its mascot

Beneath this obelisk is an even more outrageous display of Mussolini's self-regard.

Scholars Uncover Secret Message from Mussolini

The dictator's self-image lives on deep beneath an obelisk he built to commemorate his own greatness

Is this supposed to be a democracy or what? (Shown here: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un visiting Mangyongdae Revolutionary School in 2014.)

Metaphorically Speaking, Your Nervous System is a Dictatorship

Except when it's an oligarchy. Or a democracy. Or all three.

Museum Unveils Henry VIII's Flagship

The <i>Mary Rose</i> sank almost 500 years ago, but following more than 30 years of restoration, the remains of the warship are open to the public

A gold-painted statue of Chairman Mao has been erected in a remote part of central China.

Chinese Capitalists Built a Gigantic, Golden Statue of Chairman Mao

Like the Chairman's legacy, this 121-foot statue is hard to ignore

"The Murder of Caesar" by Karl von Piloty, 1865.

Explore Julius Caesar's Rome

From his former neighborhood to the place where he met his demise, check out these spots associated with Rome's most famous leader

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