An interesting historical story.
The Pax Romana ended in 180 with the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Good Emperors. The next emperor was far from good. Commodus has a bad reputation among historians. The public knows he was a bad emperor because of the movie “Gladiator”. While not as dastardly Read more…
One of the greatest warriors of the Middle Ages died an embarrassing death by way of a crossbow bolt fired by a peasant. Not exactly the way Richard the Lion-heart envisioned his death. King Richard I of England had lived the life of a legend. The second son of Read more…
When Great Britain went to war with Germany, Nicholas Alkemade gave up his gardening job to enlist in the Royal Air Force. He became a tail gunner on an Avro Lancaster. On his 15th mission, his bomber (called Werewolf) bombed Berlin the night of March 24, 1944. On the Read more…
Vasily Zaitsev was born on March 23, 1915 to a peasant family in the Ural Mountains of Russia. As a boy, his grandfather taught him how to hunt deer and wolves. At age 12, he brought home his first wolf. He had killed it with a single shot 20-gauge Read more…
Stephen Decatur was the most lauded American sailor since John Paul Jones. In 1798, he entered the US Navy as a midshipman on the USS Constitution. In a year, the had risen to Lieutenant. In 1804, he was in the Mediterranean as part of a fleet that was at Read more…
Napoleon sold Louisiana because of mosquitoes. In 1802, he sent an army led by his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to take control of New Orleans and open up a wave of French settlement. Oh, and by the way, how about stopping off in Haiti to put down that pesky Read more…
In the late 1700’s, England began its love affair with tea. Most of the tea was imported from China. The British were so obsessed with the beverage that the fast “clipper’ ships were invented to get the freshest tea leaves back to the home country. The famous Cutty Sark Read more…
St. Patrick was born in Britain near the end of Roman occupation. His birthname was Maewyn Succat. Patrick came from “patricius” meaning father. Around age 16, he was captured by Irish pirates and sold to a Celtic priest. He spent the next six years as a shepherd before he escaped Read more…
One of the pitfalls of running a web site that passes on anecdotes is sometimes you find out an anecdote you passed on to hundreds of students was actually false. I can’t go find every student to rectify an anecdote that was actually apocryphal or just plain wrong. What Read more…
A while back, our high school celebrated Black History Month by putting up posters highlighting people and events that were important in the history of African-Americans. I was struck by a poster that commemorated the invention of the cotton gin. I assume the poster was meant to praise a Read more…