20 Handshakes That Completely Changed History

Following his mother’s example, the man who is now King Charles III made his own gesture of reconciliation in 2015. While still Prince of Wales, he traveled to Ireland and shook hands with Gerry Adams, the then-leader of Sinn Féin. This handshake was deeply personal. The IRA, which Adams was long associated with, had assassinated Charles’s beloved great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979. For him to shake that hand was a difficult, powerful statement that peace required moving beyond even the most painful personal history.