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On 29 June 1849, Sergei Witte was born in Tiflis. As Russia's Minister of Finance he industrialised the empire, built the Trans-Siberian Railway, and drafted the October Manifesto that created a constitutional monarchy. Nicholas II fired him six months later.
On 27 May 1703, Peter the Great ordered a fortress built on a swamp at the mouth of the Neva. The city that rose from it would run the Russian Empire for 215 years and cost tens of thousands of lives just to construct.
On 3 March 1861, Alexander II freed twenty-three million Russian serfs. For his troubles, he was blown apart by a bomb twenty years later. The country he tried to modernise would soon tear itself to pieces.
On 8 February 1904, Japan struck first at Port Arthur and shattered more than a fleet. Russia's defeat exposed the rot of Tsarism years before 1917 finished the job.