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Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Columbia - 20 Years Later

My primary memory of the Columbia's - and remember, this was only 16 months after 9/11 - was brief fear that it was due to sabotage or violent action.  

May the crew continue to RIP

* * * 

#NASARemembers: 20 years ago today on Feb 1, 2003, at 8:59 a.m. EST, space shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry. The entire crew perished.

Rick Husband
Willie McCool
Michael Anderson
Kalpana Chawla
David Brown
Laurel Clark
Ilan Ramon

We will never forget. 

Friday, November 4, 2022

100 Years Ago Today

A century ago today, on November 4th 1922, Howard Carter discovered the long buried tomb of King Tutankhamun.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Black Dahlia - 75 Years On

75 years ago today the body of Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, was found in Los Angeles.

Friday, August 13, 2021

500 years ago today . . .

500 years ago today Aug. 13, 1521, the brutal Aztec Empire effectively ended as the last Emperor, Cuauhtemoc, was taken prisoner by the Spaniards.

Thursday, March 4, 2021

The Centennial of the Harding Presidency

100 years ago today, Warren Harding was inaugurated as President. Even after a century his reputation is largely that of an incompetent surrounded by crooks, but that is a falsehood historians have been trying to rectify for years.

The "Tea Pot Dome scandal" seems to have been partially a frame up, as in retrospect it turned on the word of a now- known perjurist. And many of the "truths" about the era, from a distance, appear as blatant political attacks. Harding was an adulterer and Prohibition wasn't exactly taken seriously under his Justice Dept, but c'est la vie. 

Here's what is not in dispute: Harding spoke out for Civil Rights and vigorously, if unsuccessfully, pursued a federal anti-lynching law (FDR, for the record, opposed one as President.) He negotiated a successful naval treaty, released political prisoners taken under Wilson, expanded the nation's use of radio, was the first President to visit Canada, established the Budget Office that is still in use today, and got the country out of a Recession through the use of said Budget Office. 

Not a great President. But not a bad one either. 

Happy Anniversary President Harding!

Sunday, February 28, 2021

On This Day

 On this date in 1844 a 12" gun on the USS Princeton exploded as the ship was sailing on the Potomac River, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others, including David Gardiner, the father of Julia Gardiner. Because widower President John Tyler was infatuated with Julia, he was down below deck with all the ladies. Had the President not been with her, he would surely have been killed as well; and since he did not have a VP or an established line of succession, a Constitutional crisis would have erupted.

Monday, October 12, 2020

150 Years Ago Today

Robert E Lee died 150 years ago today, having suffered a stroke two weeks prior. He was 63.

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

A Century of Progress

100 years ago today the 19th Amendment was ratified,  giving women the right to vote.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

250 Years Ago Today


A quarter of a millenia ago today, British troops faced down an unruly mob of colonials who were angry at Parlimentary abuses. Without question, the soldiers were well disciplined in the face of an aggressive and increasingly bold crowd.

Alas, without orders to do so, the troops opened fire, some of the crowd died, and the somewhat exaggerated title of "The Boston Massacre " was born.


Most people, with good reason, recall rge event as a prelude to revolution.  I prefer to describe it as a triumph of the rule of law. 

Despite the provocations of the crowd, the government consented to put eight of the soldiers on trial for the incident. In turn, despite intense public pressure for convictions, lawyers - among them future Revolutionary and President John Adams - secured six acquittals from the jury. Two men were convicted, but their sentences greatly reduced.

Law - not passion - prevailed. 


Wednesday, February 19, 2020

75 Years Ago

75 years ago today, US Marines landed on  the beaches of Iwo Jima.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Two Sad Anniversaries

And yesterday marked 50 years since the plane crash that killed the great Rocky Marciano.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

First Man

This was dry and unemotional,  perhaps to reflect the filmmakers view of Armstrong,  but also exquisitely filmed and a powerful testament to the history it depicts.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

On This Day

Charles Dickens released A Christmas Carol on this date 175 years ago.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

100 Years Ago Today

100 years ago today, America's deadliest WWI battle began in the Meuse-Argonne offensive. A mere month and a half before the wars end, it claimed the lives of 26,000 US servicemen. RIP

Monday, February 5, 2018

A Bustle in Your Hedgerow

This gun is set up in a hedgerow. When I saw it today, it was a pleasant reminder that there's always something left to learn. For 35 years I've read about the fighting in the hedgerows during the Allied invasion of France, and until today I had no idea what they were; my mind had filled in the blanks with an erroneous idea. Well done Instagram.




Thursday, February 1, 2018

Hue - 50 Years On

50 years ago today the bloody battle for Hue began as the Tet Offensive continued.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

100 Years Ago

100 years ago today Lenin unleashed a political system that led to the murder and suppression of tens of millions.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

History you don't read about in School

History you don't read about: At 2:32 pm on March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican separatists launched a terror attack on the floor of the House, shooting five Congressmen,  one critically. They were related to the same group that conspired to assassinate Eisenhower four months previously.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

The End of the 19th Century Happened . . . . TODAY

With the passing of the world's oldest woman today, it appears that no one from the 19th century is left on this Earth, and that the history of that era is now complete.