Today—or rather, tonight—in history, Vlad the Impaler launched a midnight raid against Muslim invaders that would cause his name to live on forever as Dracula, the terror of the night.
The year was 1462. Ottoman sultan Muhammad II (or “Mehmet”) had demanded tribute, by way of gold and Romanian boys to serve as his slave soldiers (janissaries). Vlad III Dracula—better known as Vlad Țepeș, or the “Impaler”—the ruler of Wallachia (modern day Romania) responded by sending the Muslim emissaries back to Muhammad with their turbans nailed onto their heads.
