Frankie Boyle vs. The Daily Mirror

The first bomb dropped from an airplane exploded in an oasis outside Tripoli on November 1, 1911.

"The Italians have dropped bombs from an airplane," reported Dagens Nyheter the next day. "One of the aviators successfully released several bombs in the camp of the enemy, with good results."

It was Lieutenant Guilio Cavotti who leaned out of his delicate monoplane and dropped the bomb-a Danish Haasen hand-grenade-on the North African oasis Tagiura near Tripoli. Several moments later he attacked the oasis Ain Zara. Four bombs in total, each weighing two kilos, were dropped during this first air attack.

Everyone knows about Guernica in Chechaouen. In Guernica no one has ever heard of Chechaouen. And yet they are sister cities. Two small cities, clinging to mountainsides, a few miles from the northern coast of Spain and Morocco, respectively. Both of them are very old-Guernica was founded in 1366, and Chechaouen in 1471. Both are holy places-Guernica has the sacred oak of the Basque people, and Chechaouen has Moulay Abdessalam Ben Mchich's sacred grave. Both are capitals-Guernica for the Basques, and Chechaouen for the Jibala people. Both had populations of about 6,000 when they were bombed, Guernica in 1937 and Chechaouen 1925. Both were bombed by legionnaires-Guernica by Germans serving under Franco, and Chechaouen by Americans under French command, serving the interests of the Spanish colonial power.