August 23, 480 B.C. is the suggested date for the start of the Battle of Thermopylae. There have been two movies about it. “The 300 Spartans” was a B-movie that has its fans, but “300” was a huge box office Read more
Edmund Ironside was the son of Aethelred the Unready. His family battled the Danes in the 11th Century. In 1016, his father died and Edmund became king of the English. In the next few months he fought several battles Read more
Sigurd Eysteinsson was known as “Sigurd the Mighty”. He was a Viking earl who ruled the Orkney and Shetland Islands in the late 9th Century. Being a Viking, he was of course greedy for more. He helped conquer northern Read more
One of the most consequential battles of the Revolutionary War occurred on August 16, 1777. The Battle of Bennington was part of the Saratoga Campaign. British Gen. John Burgoyne was marching south from Canada to try to cut off Read more
In 1942, the Royal Marine Boom Patrol Detachment was created in Great Britain. It was a special forces unit that was trained to conduct secret missions using small boats. It was headed by the dashing Maj. Herbert “Blondie” Hasler. Read more
During the Blitz of London in 1940, many people were killed by German bombs. Sometimes they left pets behind. After a bombing raid, a mixed breed terrier was found amongst the ruins. An Air Raid Warden named King fed Read more
Elizabeth Bathory was born on August 7, 1560. She went on to become the “female dracula”. Here is the legend. How much is true cannot be determined. Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian countess. Her husband was a general and she Read more
The American Emergency Rescue Committee was formed in New York after the fall of France in 1940. It was supported by Eleanor Roosevelt. It was created by intellectuals to help refugee anti-Nazi writers and artists and Jews. Varian Fry Read more
In the summer of 1964, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was helping register African-Americans to vote in Mississippi (Freedom Summer). On April 24, the Ku Klux Klan (which had more than 10,000 members in Mississippi) had burned 61 Read more
Anaximander was the first philosophy who wrote down his ideas. Unfortunately, most of his writings have been lost. We do know some of them from Plato and Aristotle. He questioned mythology and substituted natural explanations for phenomena. He is Read more