On February 17th, 1905, socialist revolutionaries warned Elizabeth, the Empress of Russia’s sister: “Don’t go out in your husband’s carriage today.” She didn’t, but her husband, the Grand Duke Sergei, Governor of Moscow and uncle to Tsar Nicholas II, did. Seconds later there was a terrific explosion which fatally injured the Grand Duke.

The bomb was planted by Ivan Kaliayev, a revolutionary who refused to plead for his life, claiming that his death would further the cause of change in Russia. He was hanged at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, May 23rd, 1905, in St. Petersburg. Elizabeth, who supported the move for democratic change in Russia, was herself murdered by the Communists in July 1918.