On this day in ...... 843 (1,165 years ago today), it is said (the exact date varies in various accounts), the Treaty of Verdun was concluded. With this treaty the 3 surviving sons of King Louis the Pious (778-840) settled a war among themselves by dividing the Holy Roman Empire once ruled by their grandfather, Charlemagne (circa 747-814). "[O]one of the most important treaties of Europe," the Verdun pact "laid the foundations for what would become the independent states of France and Germany."
... 2003 (5 years ago today), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO, assumed "a leadership role in providing security in and around Kabul in Afghanistan, in what is the Alliance’s first mission beyond the Euro-Atlantic area." The conflict in that Central Asian country, begun in 2001 in
response to terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 of that year, continues. IntLawGrrls tracks casualties and news about the conflict in our recurrent ...and counting... feature.
