18 January 1871

Germany's first emperor is crowned at Versailles.

This would be Wilhelm of Prussia, who, with the help of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, unified the German states with wars against Denmark and Austria in the 1860s, then took on the French, whose leader, Napoleon III, folded remarkably quickly (no French jokes, please) under the onslaught of General von Moltke. Bismarck had calculated that a victory over France would bring the southern German states into the fledgling empire, and after some backroom dealing, he achieved his goals. Wilhelm was crowned in the palace of the French kings, probably the ultimate humiliation for the French. They were also obliged to turn over the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany and pay 5 billion francs. Such a minor thing - being crowned in the center of power of a foreign country. Yet who would deny that it made the French a bit testy in Paris in 1919, which led to crippling war reparations imposed on Germany, which led to a small man with a big voice named Hitler taking over? The chain of history stretches far, indeed. The German Empire made a splash in the late 19th and early 20th century, but Wilhelm II lost it all in 1918 and went to Holland. I'm sure his heirs are still rich and still call themselves the rightful rulers of the country.