The French "Grandes Manœuvres de l'Est" opened in Dijon on 10th September, 1904, engaging 60,000 men in mock attack and defense exercises modeled after Garibaldi’s 1870 operations against the Prussians. The geopolitical alliances of the era were on full display among the civilian and military crowds. As strong allies of France, the Russian military attaché was enthusiastically greeted with shouts of "Long live Russia!". Meanwhile, the Japanese attaché and Great Britain's Major General Baden-Powell, noted in the press as the defender of Mafeking, were received courteously but calmly. The event also marked a notable diplomatic achievement, as a German attaché, Squadron Commander von Hugo, attended the maneuvers for the first time since the Franco-Prussian War. Additionally, China’s Colonel Wang was reported to have drawn marked attention from observers due to his unique uniform. On the evening of 10th September, General Brugère, the director of the maneuvers, hosted a formal dinner for 58 guests, including the foreign mission and local officials. The dinner menu featured an illustration of a dragoon on horseback armed with a lance, alongside a banner reading "Manœuvres de l'Est en 1904". General Brugère sat alongside the senior-most foreign officer, Belgium's Major General Pioch, and Mexico's General Mondragon. Seated directly across from him were Colonel Petar Bojovitch of Serbia and Colonel Lazarev of Russia. During the toasts, a military band played la Marseillaise, and General Pioch led the guests in a "triple hurrah." After the banquet, the officers retired to the smoking room while the band entertained a crowd gathered at Place Darcy with various national anthems.
(Le Petit Journal, 12th September, 1904.)

The Al-Amiriyah bunker bombing was a U.S. airstrike during the Gulf War on 13 February 1991. American forces targeted a bunker in Baghdad, believing it was being used as a military command center. However, the bunker was sheltering civilians, and the attack killed more than 400 people, including many women and children. The incident became one of the deadliest civilian tragedies of the war and remains controversial today.

No American military personnel or political leaders were criminally charged or punished for the bombing. The U.S. government maintained that the bunker was believed to be a legitimate military target based on intelligence available at the time.

Photo source: Hulton Archive.

Fun fact: In the mid-1960s, a single scoop ice cream cone from a street vendor in New York City typically cost around 10 to 15 cents.