Through a company called Hassan Ben Ali Arabs Co., a number of Moroccan entertainers left for the United States to perform in Broadway. They acted, danced and performed acrobatic feats in New York in several plays and shows during the beginning of the 20th century.
Mohammed Awzal is seen as an important figure in the Tashelhit-language literary tradition. The Sufi poet was behind a number of manuscripts written in Tamazight during the 18th century.
After it was defeated by the United States, Spain decided to get rid of its colonies. In 1898, it planed to sell the Sahara to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In his travelogue, Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta described the former basilica Saint Sophia, which has since become a museum. The building has made headlines recently because of its conversion into a mosque.
On May 11, 1624, the city of Fez was almost completely destroyed by one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Morocco. An intense earthquake hit the city, wrecked most of its districts and killed thousands of people.
In 1631, a Spanish Franciscan was executed by Saadi sultan Al Walid ben Zidan. The latter ordered that the priest be burned after he came to Morocco to preach and comfort Christian slaves.
In 1906, Marrakech-based shoemaker Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi was arrested for killing 36 women, stealing their money and burying them under his shop and in his garden. After he escaped crucifixion, Mesfewi was tortured and walled up alive.
Throughout the last centuries, Moroccans adapted their eating habits to the harsh events they had to go through. During famines and droughts, they considered extreme food choices including cat meat, human flesh and venomous insects.
The oldest known doctor of medicine degree was granted in Fez to Moroccan student Abdellah Ben Saleh Al Koutami. The latter studied at the Univesity of al-Qarawiyyin and was the disciple of prestigious Muslim scientists, including Al Baytar and Annabati.
In 1969 and 1970, the Ra expeditions were launched in Morocco by a Norwegian adventurer to prove that prehistoric civilizations from both sides of the ocean were in contact with each other. The second part of the expedition included a Moroccan man who sailed from Safi to Barbados.