5,963 articles
Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee Massacre (December 29, 1890): the US Army 7th Cavalry killed an estimated 150 to over 300 Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, during the Ghost Dance panic; 20 Medals of Honor were later awarded and remain contested.
Xhosa Wars
The Xhosa Wars, also known as the Cape Frontier Wars, were nine wars fought from 1779 to 1879 between Xhosa chiefdoms and colonial forces in South Africa's Eastern Cape.
Xi'an Incident (西安事变)
Xi'an Incident (西安事变), Double Twelfth Incident: 12 December 1936 seizure of Chiang Kai-shek by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng at Xi'an, forcing an end to the anti-Communist civil war; released 25 December, leading to the Second United Front.
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (匈奴, Hsiung-nu) were the first nomadic steppe empire, controlling the Eastern Eurasian steppe ca. 200 BCE-100 CE from Mongolia and rivaling Han China; recent genetics and linguistics link parts of their elite to the European Huns.
Yakima War
The Yakima War, also spelled Yakama War, was an 1855 to 1858 conflict between the United States and the Yakama and allied tribes of Washington Territory.
Yakov Smushkevich
Yakov Smushkevich (Яков Владимирович Смушкевич) was a Soviet air force commander who led Soviet aviation in the Spanish Civil War and at Khalkhin Gol, twice made Hero of the Soviet Union.
Yakub Memon
Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, Indian chartered accountant and brother of Tiger Memon, convicted for financing the 12 March 1993 Bombay bombings (257 dead, 713 injured); sole death-sentence convict, hanged 30 July 2015 at Nagpur Central jail on his 53rd birthday.
Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a 1715 conflict between South Carolina and an alliance of Indian nations, including the Yamasees, Creeks, and Cherokees, that nearly destroyed the colony.
Yamashiro ikki
The Yamashiro ikki was a league of local warriors, village samurai, and peasants that expelled the rival Hatakeyama armies from southern Yamashiro Province in December 1485.
Yamashita's gold
Yamashita's gold, or Yamashita's treasure, is the unverified legend of WWII Japanese loot buried in Philippine tunnels, named for General Tomoyuki Yamashita; the documented Roxas v. Marcos case and historians' skepticism distinguish it.
Yasin Bhatkal
Yasin Bhatkal, born Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa, co-founder and operational chief of the Indian Mujahideen; arrested at Raxaul on the India-Nepal border in August 2013 and sentenced to death in 2016 for the 2013 Dilsukhnagar Hyderabad twin blasts.
Yasin Malik (یاسین ملک)
Yasin Malik is a Kashmiri separatist who headed the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, seeking independence from both India and Pakistan; convicted of terror financing in May 2022, sentenced to two life terms, held in Tihar Jail.
Yaxchilan–Piedras Negras wars
The Yaxchilan–Piedras Negras wars were repeated conflicts between rival Classic Maya kingdoms whose capitals faced each other along the Usumacinta River, culminating in endemic warfare by the eighth century.
Yellow Flag Army
The Yellow Flag Army (黃旗軍) was a band of Chinese former rebels that controlled territory around Hà Giang in northern Vietnam in the 1870s, under Huang Chongying.
Yellow Line (Gaza)
The Yellow Line is the Gaza ceasefire demarcation line, effective 10 October 2025, to which Israeli forces withdrew, initially covering about 53 percent of the Strip; marked by yellow concrete blocks, it expanded westward, was fortified with a 23 km earthen barrier, and is associated with hundreds of verified deaths near the line.
Yellow Turban Rebellion (黄巾之乱)
The Yellow Turban Rebellion (黄巾之乱), a 184 CE religious peasant uprising in the late Eastern Han led by Zhang Jue's Way of Great Peace, whose yellow-scarved followers rose under a jiazi-year slogan and were crushed within a year, triggering warlordism and the Three Kingdoms era.
Yemelyan Pugachev (Емельян Иванович Пугачёв)
Yemelyan Pugachev (Емельян Иванович Пугачёв), c. 1742–1775, Don Cossack who claimed to be Peter III and led Russia's 1773–1775 Pugachev Rebellion; besieged Orenburg, took Kazan, executed at Moscow.
Yemeni civil war (2014–present)
Civil war in Yemen beginning with the Houthi seizure of Sanaa in September 2014, fought between Iran-backed Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition backing the recognized government, with a 2022 truce and renewed fighting in 2026.
Yên Thế insurgency
The Yên Thế insurgency (Khởi nghĩa Yên Thế) was an armed peasant uprising against French colonial rule in northern Vietnam, lasting from 1884 to 1913.
Yenisei Kyrgyz wars with Russia
The Yenisei Kyrgyz wars with Russia were a series of conflicts from the 1620s to the early eighteenth century, as Russia expanded up the Yenisei River against resisting Kyrgyz nomads.
Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion
The Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion was an October 1948 mutiny by South Korea's 14th Regiment, which refused to suppress the Jeju uprising and was put down in about a week.
Yi Ja-gyeom's Rebellion
Yi Ja-gyeom's Rebellion (이자겸의 난) was a 1126 revolt in Korea's Goryeo dynasty, in which the royal in-law Yi Ja-gyeom seized the palace and confined King Injong before being exiled.
Yom Kippur War (מלחמת יום כיפור)
Yom Kippur War (מלחמת יום כיפור), also October or Ramadan War: Egypt and Syria's surprise attack on Israel, October 6, 1973, on Sinai and Golan; led to oil embargo, Agranat Commission, 1979 peace treaty.
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908): CUP-led uprising in Ottoman Macedonia, begun at Resna by Niazi Bey, that forced Abdul Hamid II to restore the 1876 constitution on 24 July 1908, opening the Second Constitutional Period.
YouTube headquarters shooting
The YouTube headquarters shooting was an attack on April 3, 2018, in which Nasim Najafi Aghdam shot and wounded three people at YouTube's San Bruno, California headquarters before killing herself.
Yser Front
Yser Front (IJzerfront): the Belgian-held section of the Western Front along the river Yser and Yser Canal near Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort, 1914-1918, where the Battle of the Yser, the inundation of the Yser plain, and the Trench of Death halted the German advance.
Yu In-seok
Yu In-seok (유인석, 柳麟錫; 1842–1915), pen name Uiam, was a Korean Confucian scholar and righteous army commander who led anti-Japanese resistance in the late Joseon period.
Yugoslav counter-offensive in Kosovo (1998)
Yugoslav counter-offensive in Kosovo (1998): the July-September FRY army and Serbian police campaign that retook up to 40 percent of territory held by the KLA (UÇK), displacing some 300,000 civilians and prompting Resolution 1199 and NATO's October activation order.
Yugoslav Partisans
Yugoslav Partisans (Narodnooslobodilački pokret), the communist-led WWII resistance under Tito, fought Axis occupiers and Chetnik rivals from 1941, won Allied backing in 1943, liberated most of Yugoslavia, and founded socialist Yugoslavia.
Yugoslav Wars
Yugoslav Wars: 1990s conflicts during the breakup of Socialist Yugoslavia, fought in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo; over 100,000 deaths in Bosnia, four million displaced, ethnic cleansing, and ICTY prosecutions of Milosevic and Mladic.