Hand Gesture Gallery

Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russia, 1937. Artist: Alexander K MacDonald

Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russia'. Portrait of Catherine II (1729-1796) who came to the throne in 1762. A German princess, Catherine was chosen at the age of 14 to be the wife of Peter III of Russia. The marriage was a failure and Catherine conspired with a group of nobles including her lover, Count Orlov, to depose the Tsar with Catherine ruling in his stead. Her reign saw Russia take an increasing role in European affairs and expand its empire with the addition of the Crimea and much of Poland. From an original drawing by A. K. Macdonald. From the John Player & Sons cigarette card series Famous Beauties, 1937

© The Print Collector

Cardinal Wolsey, c1500s, (1890). Creator: Unknown

Cardinal Wolsey, c1500s, (1890). Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England, bishop, statesman and cardinal of the Catholic Church during the reign of Henry VIII. From "Cassell's Illustrated Universal History, Vol. IV - Modern History", by Edmund Ollier. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris and Melbourne, 1890]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Migrants gesture after boarding a train after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near

Migrants gesture after boarding a train after crossing the Macedonian-Greek border near Gevgelija, Macedonia, September 5, 2015. A record 50,000 migrants hit Greek shores in July alone and were ferried from islands unable to cope to the mainland by a government already floundering in financial crisis and keen to dispatch them promptly north into Macedonia, whence they enter Serbia and then Hungary. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY