empire

Rejoice, Star Wars fans! May the 4th is National Star Wars Day! The epic film series launched plenty of words — like Jedi and Wookiee — but it also made use of existing words, giving them a new spin, and a new force, if you will. Our Star Wars lexicon will serve you well in any galaxy. Read the full article here.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States naval base located at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Over 2,400 Americans died. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress to ask for a declaration of war. He began by referring to December 7th as "a date that will live in infamy." The Pearl Harbor attack brought the United States into World War II and was the most deadly foreign attack on American soil until the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda in 2001.

If political geography is your territory, you'll want to review this list of essential terms. Learn about features of the political landscape such as boundaries, frontiers, and buffer states, as well as powerful forces like colonialism, imperialism, and democratization.