In 1871, two Swiss men were sent on a mission, rushing to the aid of Swiss citizens trapped in Paris. To do so they had to cross the Prussian siege line, and talk their way past the French.

The last representative of the Ottoman Empire was Rachid Osman. He spent his twilight years in a small village in Glarus. His wife Rosa Osman-Keller earned a living as a village hairdresser to support herself and her once fabulously wealthy husband.

There have been children’s ski camps in Switzerland since 1940. The origins of these camps go back to World War II, and there were serious reasons for them: the camps were intended to prepare young people for a winter campaign.

In February 1969, an attacker was shot dead at Kloten Airport. In the thick of the action were the press photographers, who documented the event up close and in vivid detail.

Due to the new lockdown of the museums, Hibou Pèlerin has been forced to take a compulsory break. He is using this time to read some new publications on cultural history. A brand new world history of the museum by Krzysztof Pomian has him riveted.

Bobsleighing started out as an activity to keep well-to-do foreign tourists entertained. It wasn’t until much later that the sport became popular among the Swiss as well.

A stained-glass work of exceptional artistic quality dating from 1588, on permanent loan from the Swiss National Museum, adds a touch of dramatic beauty to the Ittinger Museum in the Kartause Ittingen.

On 5 February 1971 a devastating fire broke out at Lucerne railway station, destroying large sections of the Art Nouveau building. It was the biggest railway station fire since the formation of SBB.