A Brief History On July 27, 1789, the Department of Foreign Affairs was created, becoming the first of many US Federal departments and agencies. As you may guess, this department is now called the Department of State. Digging Deeper How many agencies and departments does the Federal Government currently have? We have 15 Cabinet level departments, each led by a secretary appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The most recently added Department is the Department of Homeland Security, added in 2002. Meanwhile, we now have a staggering 438 Federal agencies. Despite this enormous growth in bureaucracy, there…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On July 26, 2005, Mumbai, India, received an incredible 39.17 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. Mumbai is the most populous city in what is now the most populous country in the world, with 12.5 million inhabitants. Obviously, such an enormous amount of rain created massive flooding, and sadly about 1,100 people died in the floods. Digging Deeper To put this enormous amount of rain in perspective, Cleveland, Ohio, a typical US city, has a record 24 hour rainfall of just 4.59 inches on September 7, 1996. The contiguous states US record for a single…
A Brief History On July 25, 1984, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya exited her Salyut 7 space capsule while in orbit, thus becoming the first woman to ever engage in an EVA, or “extravehicular activity” in space. Most of us usually call such activity a “spacewalk.” Digging Deeper The US has had 56 women in space, and the world has now sent into space about 75 ladies. The Soviets were the real pioneers with women in space with Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman space traveler in 1963. The Soviets did not send another woman into orbit until 1982, with the…
A Brief History On July 24, 1980, a quartet of Australian swimmers took the Olympic Gold Medal in the Men’s Swimming 4 by 100-meter medley relay race, the only time an American team failed to win this particular event. Digging Deeper While the US has dominated this particular event, the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, was plagued by politics and the US along with 65 other countries boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Australians, certainly among the greatest swimming nations, produced the “Quietly Confident Quartet,” a self-named crew consisting of Mark Kerry, Peter Evans, Mark…
A Brief History On July 23, 1900, the icon of national “niceness” that is Canada turned a cold shoulder to immigrants, instituting a policy forbidding paupers and criminals from entering the country. While the US currently has emotional discussion about immigration into the country, illegal and legal alike, the fact is many countries have struggled with immigration policy. Digging Deeper Religion, ethnicity, skin color, and cultural considerations have often affected immigration policies or the lack of welcome on the part of the current inhabitants. While many countries have a positive view of immigrants, Pew Research indicates many have a negative…