A Brief History On July 19, 64 AD, the Roman night was interrupted by the beginning of what became known as The Great Fire of Rome. Digging Deeper The fire started in the Circus Maximus where Romans held chariot races. It spread and burned for 6 days before Romans could bring the blaze under control, but as often happens, the flames reignited and a larger blaze began! Three more days of flames, and two thirds of Rome was burned to the ground. Emperor Nero blamed the Christians, and began a program of repression against Christians, but many of his enemies…
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 18, 1806, a powder magazine exploded accidentally at Birgu, Malta, creating massive damage to the military and civilian infrastructure nearby and killing at least 200 people. Such accidental explosions have often taken place throughout the history of gunpowder and other explosives, and today we take a look at 10 of those memorable events. (“Gunpowder” includes black powder, the original explosive and propellant, as well as modern “smokeless” nitro based powders and modern explosives.) Digging Deeper USS Maine, 1898 We list this disaster first, because of the battle cry, “Remember the Maine!” How could we forget? …
A Brief History On July 12, 2022, we acknowledge that we finally got around to trying the gourmet coffee offered by Coffee Brand Coffee. As someone who drinks at least a pot of coffee each day, coffee is an incredibly important part of my life. After growing up drinking coffee with cream and sugar, and then with only cream, the quality of the coffee was masked and did not matter so much. After switching to drinking black coffee, a whole new world of discerning the quality of the coffee was discovered and became a critical part of my choice of…
A Brief History On July 11, 2016, we ran an article we called Scumbag of the Year Awards (First Half) 2016. Today, we take another look at this sordid subject with an eye on the first half of 2022. Sadly, three is no lack of subjects for this article, though for brevity reasons we limit our list to only a few particularly egregious offenders. Feel free to tell us those other scumbags you think belong on this list. Digging Deeper Vladimir Putin, Dictator of Russia and War Criminal Vladimir Putin, narcissistic megalomaniac dictator of Russia, ordered the invasion of neighboring…
A Brief History On July 4th, 2022, Americans celebrate their Independence Day, a holiday that signifies their freedom. During the month of June 2015, Americans experienced a host of developments in the expansion of this freedom, so we of course featured an article about those changes. In any case, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times sure were a-changin’ in June 2015, and here in 2022, those times STILL are a changin’! Digging Deeper Since 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and it seemed as if the Cold War was over, we have all lived under the belief that nuclear war…