KHAN!

It is thought that it was on this day in 1227 that Mongol leader Genghis Khan died. Legends persist that he was stabbed by a woman and eventually lost too much blood to stay in his saddle. However, the cause of his death remains a mystery, but explorer Marco Polo wrote that he died from an infected arrow wound, but a study concluded that he may have died from bubonic plague.
In his life, Genghis Khan's ruthlessness was legendary, though much of that comes from history written by those he conquered. In Mongolia, he is considered the heroic father of the nation. Khan conquered an area four times larger than that gained by Alexander the Great and his sons went on the enlarge his empire, his grandson, Kublia, became emperor of a united China.