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What was happening 15 years ago? What was happening 50 years ago?  What was
happening 500 years ago?
15 years ago: January 1996 saw current postings of the historic standbys
Raumschach, Tamerlane, and Shatranj. 
http://www.chessvariants.org/3d.dir/3d5.html, 
http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/tamerlane.html,  
http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/shatranj.html.
50 years ago: Bled 1961 was one of the strongest ever.  Bled, Slovenia tournament is won by Mikhail Tal former w.c. over Petrosian future w.c., Keres, and Gligoric.  And over Bobby Fischer who finishes second at Bled.
http://www.worldchesslinks.net/ezqa31.html,
http://www.rookhouse.com/events/bled1961.html.
500 years ago: In 1511 Spanish Diego Velazquez de Cuellar conquered Cuba after a million Caribbean natives had already been mass murdered by machete since 1492 the barrier broken.  There had been 125 million American people in 1490, 1500, the very years thought of as modern Chess origination.