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Michael Ray
Michael Ray
Encyclopædia Britannica Editor
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BIOGRAPHY

Michael Ray earned a B.A. in history from Michigan State University in 1995. He was a teacher in the Chicago suburbs and Seoul, South Korea, prior to joining Britannica as a freelancer in 2000. Hired as a full-time copy editor in 2003, he currently works as an editor and oversees coverage of European history and military affairs.

Primary Contributions (244)
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Duterte Filipino politician who was president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. Duterte’s father served as governor of the province of Davao, and his mother was a community activist who had a prominent role in the “people power” movement that deposed the authoritarian president…
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Eurovision Song Contest
Fox News Channel
Taylor Swift
Activision Blizzard, Inc.
António Guterres
Tupac Shakur
Giorgia Meloni
Russia-Ukraine War
Luftwaffe
Olaf Scholz
the Greens
Emmett Till
Tony Abbott
the Shangri-Las
Volodymyr Zelensky
Emmanuel Macron
Felipe VI
Aleksey Navalny
Christine Keeler
Flint water crisis
White Rose
Wagner Group
Miyazaki Hayao
mass shooting
Geert Wilders
Greensboro sit-in
State of the Union
Grand Canal
Dwayne Johnson
Frank Miller
Lori Robinson
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
online gaming
Boston Marathon bombing of 2013
Julian Assange
WikiLeaks
Moon Jae-In
Tea Party movement
James Mattis
Viktor Yanukovych
Marine Le Pen
U.S. Secret Service
Dilma Rousseff
Rahm Emanuel
Rascal Flatts
National Rally
list of films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Peter Dinklage
Eric Holder
Garth Brooks
ABBA
Dmitry Medvedev
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
United Kingdom Independence Party
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Edward Snowden
T Bone Burnett
social network
Oslo and Utøya attacks of 2011
Alan Moore
Kim Yo-Jong
Hugh Jackman
Julia Gillard
Chelsea Manning
Amy Schumer
Live Aid
Lindbergh baby kidnapping
Orlando shooting of 2016
Paris attacks of 2015
Jack Kirby
Rick Rubin
euro-zone debt crisis
Sam Raimi
Ted Kaczynski
Alex Chilton
Liu Xiaobo
Lorde
Bob Brown
the Ronettes
François Hollande
Petro Poroshenko
Madrid train bombings of 2004
Joseph Dunford
Christmas Truce
2022 Nobel Peace Prize winners
Daniel Ellsberg
Neil Gaiman
Napoleon: The Man Behind the Legend
Carrie Underwood
Napoleon as Pop Culture Icon
Euroskepticism
Abscam
Battle of Midway
Jean-Claude Juncker
Elizabeth Edwards
Suga Yoshihide
Alabama Shakes
Looney Tunes
Bonaparte Family
Mark Durkan
Kgalema Motlanthe
Carlos the Jackal
Lisbon Treaty
Harlem Hellfighters
Peanuts
StarCraft
Janjaweed
Battle of Brisbane
Mike Mullen
Stanley McChrystal
Captain Marvel
Ukraine crisis
hip-hop
Portishead
Napoleon’s major battles
Imelda Marcos
Timeline of the Napoleonic Era
Baaba Maal
Wagner Group: At a Glance
Florence Welch
Memorial
Herman Van Rompuy
Dmitry Ivanovich
Burma Railway
Reg Empey
Schengen Agreement
Selective Service Acts
Executive Order 9981
D-Day in pictures
Japanese American internment in pictures
Executive Order 9066
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Art Spiegelman
Ken Livingstone
Remembering World War I
My Lai Massacre
Treaty of Greenville
Alison Bechdel
Convention on Cluster Munitions
Cathy Guisewite
George Mitchell
Wehrmacht
Juan Manuel Santos
Roland Burris
Women Airforce Service Pilots
Alison Krauss
Beppe Grillo
M.I.A.
Biljana Plavšić
London bombings of 2005
Franz Halder
George Papandreou
Tariq Aziz
Bronisław Komorowski
Tank Man
Alan Johnson
Michael Ignatieff
Reiwa period
Enda Kenny
L’Aquila earthquake of 2009
Barney Frank
Catherine Ashton
E.L. James
David Ford
Eugenius Bulgaris
pirate radio
the Marvelettes
Battle of Tours
World War II: The horror of war in pictures
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Mary I of England (1516-1558). Mary Tudor as a young woman, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, half-sis Elizabeth I. Became Queen Mary I of England (1553) known as Bloody Mary for persecution of Protestants. First queen to rule England.
Was Bloody Mary a Real Person?
French infantry coming into position at the Marne during World War I, 1914-18.
Battles of World War I
Communism - mosaic hammer and sickle with star on the Pavilion of Ukraine at the All Russia Exhibition Centre (also known as VDNKh) in Moscow. Communist symbol of the former Soviet Union. USSR
Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?
American troops at the front in Italy. American soldiers on the Piave (river) front hurling a shower of hand grenades into the Austrian trenches, Varage, Italy; September 16, 1918. (World War I)
Leaders of World War I
J. Robert Oppenheimer (L) & Gen. Leslie R. Groves at ground zero examine remains of a base of the steel test tower at the Trinity Test site of a nuclear bomb; as part of the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, Sep. 1945. Los Alamos National Laboratory
Timeline of the Manhattan Project
Battle of Fleurus (June 16, 1794), the most significant battle in the First Coalition phase of the French Revolutionary Wars; by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse, 19th century.
What Led to France’s Reign of Terror?
Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939), Loyalist machine gunners, 1937.
Timeline of the Spanish Civil War
Poster one-sheet from "Frankenstein" (1931) with Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, and Boris Karloff, directed by James Whale.
11 Famous Movie Monsters
Text Top Secret typed on retro typewriter
How Secret Is Top Secret?
Dancers at a Cinco de Mayo festival at the Mission District, San Francisco, California. (Photo dated 2019.) holidays
Is Cinco de Mayo Mexico's Independence Day?
Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431-1476), oil on canvas painting from the second half of the 16th century; in the collection of the Ambras Castle, Innsbruck.
Was Dracula a Real Person?
"John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I" by Henry Gillard Glindoni. Oil painting 18th century. Pentimento, occult, sorcery, magic.
Queen Elizabeth's Court Occultist
pg 229Nazi parade features a banner proclaiming, "Death to Marxism."The possibility of a peaceful Germany after World War I was precluded entirely by the terms of the Versailles Treaty and theintransigent hostility of France and England. Stripped of indu
Were the Nazis Socialists?
Nazi Germany, Nazi SS troops marching with victory standards at the Party Day rally in Nuremberg, Germany, 1933. (Schutzstaffel, Nazi Party, Nurnberg)
Why Was Nazi Germany Called the Third Reich?
pg 159Explosions rock American base at Pearl Harbor following surprise Japanese attack, December 7, 1941.To Japan, an eventual attack on the United States, specifically on the island outpost of Hawaii, was aninevitable beginning of military action agains
Pearl Harbor in Context
World War I - British troops in a front line trench in France, 1917. Trench warfare. Trenches western front soldiers infantry
Does Trench Warfare Still Exist?
United States electoral college map showing number of electoral votes by state.
How Does the Electoral College Work?
President Barack Obama signs the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans Executive Order in the Oval Office, July 26, 2012
What Is an Executive Order?
Chicago Flag, Illinois, city
100th Anniversary of Chicago’s Flag
Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1922-1991. USSR, Soviet Union.
25th Anniversary of the End of the Soviet Union
Explosion of the USS Shaw's forward magazine during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. The Shaw was repaired and served in the Pacific through World War 2.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
New Zealand. Political/Physical map. Includes locator.
Where Is “Old Zealand”?
William Shatner and Leonard Nimroy as Captain James T. Kirk and Spock in the tv show Star Trek 1966-1969
50th Anniversary of Star Trek
Mayu Hamada from Japan (blue) and Fenfen Chao from China (red). Mayu Hamada received the gold medal in the women's category -57Kg. Rio 2016 Olympic Park holds a test event for Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Olympics: Martial Arts
David Cameron. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom talk during the G8 Summit at the Lough Erne Resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, June 17, 2013
What’s the Difference Between a President and a Prime Minister?
Operation Barbarossa, German troops in Russia, 1941. Nazi German soldiers in action against the Red Army (Soviet Union) at an along the frontlines in the early days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. World War II, WWII
75th Anniversary of Operation Barbarossa
Wide angle view of Pripyat from Polissya Hotel. Chernobyl nuclear power plant zone of alienation.
30th Anniversary of Chernobyl
Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) (ad 50-54) the fifth Roman emperor (ad 54-68), stepson and heir of the emperor Claudius.
Did Nero Really Fiddle as Rome Burned?
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA MARCH 21: Large crowds gather to watch the annual St Patrick's Day parade running through the CBD on March 21, 2010. The festival, marks the national day of Ireland, celebrated on March 17.
St. Patrick’s Day
Red eggs, which symbolize happiness and the renewal of life. Commonly consumed at Easter in the Orthodox Christian faith, symbolizing Christ's blood.
What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter?
French soldiers resting behind the front during the Battle of Verdun during the First World War From L'Illustration, 1916
100th Anniversary of the Battle of Verdun
Scottish Haggis, Burns Night, whiskey
The Haggis! Burns Night in Scotland
The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and has never been officially named. Hompepage blog 2009, history and society, war memorial day, veterans day, 4th of July, graves
Veterans Day
O.J. Simpson reacts as he is found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman at the Criminal Courts Building in Los Angeles Oct. 3, 1995. Defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey (l), defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. (r)
20th Anniversary of the O.J. Simpson Verdict
Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in London with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background, ca. 1940 exact date unknown. Battle of Britain, The Blitz, World War II, Great Britain
75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
London Tube bombings of 2005 for use on BTN/SPT
10th Anniversary of the London Bombings
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Battle of Waterloo. Wellesley (1769-1852) British Commander, with his staff, doffs his hat to another officer as the Battle of Waterloo (Napoleon's final defeat) rages around them. June 18, 1815. Napoleonic Wars
200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
King John (1167-1216) signs the Great Charter (Magna Carta) the charter of English liberties, Runnymede, Surrey, 1215 (1864). The Angevin kings of England, Henry II, Richard I and John arbitrarily abused feudal rights. The nobility forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, guaranteeing their restoration.
800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta
Mass Shootings in the United States, 1982-2012. Infographic: guns gun violence semiautomatic handguns weapons shotguns assault weapons Newtown, The shootings at Sandy Hook School.
National Gun Violence Awareness Day
Rainbow flag hangs from building. Sign of diversity, inclusiveness, hope, yearning. Gay pride flag popularized by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. Inspired by Judy Garland singing Over the Rainbow. gay rights, homosexual, gays, LGBT community
Ireland’s Same-Sex Marriage Referendum
People celebrate in Times Square in New York City, New York on V-E Day (Victory in Europe), May 8, 1945.
70th Anniversary of V-E Day
Mark Hamill(Left), David Prowse(Right), Luke Skywalker(Left) and Darth Vader(Right), Start Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back(1980), Irvin Kershner
May the Fourth Be with You
Vietnam War. Fall of Saigon. Helicopter pilot radio transmissions during the United States Saigon evacuation dated: April 29, April 30, 1975. Partial text: 200 Americans left... Do not let South Viets follow too closely. Use Mace...do not fire...
40th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon
ANZAC troops set up camps on the Gallipoli Peninsula (now in Turkey) during World War I.
100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings
The Avengers Age of Ultron (2015)Director Joss Whedon. Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr.; Scarlett Johansson, Black Widow; Chris Evans, Captain America; Mark Ruffalo, The Hulk; Chris Hemsworth,Thor; Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye; Samuel Jackson,Nick Fury
Avengers Assemble!
Heavy equipment is used to remove debris from the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, April 21, 1995.
20th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing