Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On April 23, 2021, we at History and Headlines say, “Enough!”  Enough with politicians subtly and not so subtly encouraging citizens to violently demonstrate, including wink of the eye calls for “protests” that are “mostly peaceful” but in reality are rather violent.  President Trump was impeached for exactly that sort of behavior, and it is time to hold ALL politicians to the same standard. Digging Deeper Specifically, today we can include Representative to Congress Maxine Waters (D-California) in the group of irresponsible politicians inciting violence, and we call upon her to resign from office.  Her call for…

A Brief History On April 19, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman became the first known person to ever dose himself with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, after previously having discovered the psychedelic properties of the substance only 3 days earlier.  Hoffman, not to be confused with 1960’s American radical Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), also rates in the history of mind blowing drugs as the person that discovered the stuff that makes psychedelic mushrooms powerful hallucinogens, specifically the compounds Psilocybin and Psilocin. Digging Deeper Hoffman’s birth in Baden, Switzerland in 1906, to a working class family did not foreshadow the heights of scientific…

A Brief History On April 12, 2009, the East African nation of Zimbabwe gave up entirely on its troubled currency, the Zimbabwean Dollar, using various foreign currencies in place of the worthless national money.  Many countries have come and gone, and their forms of currency with them, while other nations have changed their national currency for a variety of reasons.  Today we take a look at some of the interesting monetary changes that have occurred in recent history.  What currency would you add to this list? Digging Deeper Zimbabwean Dollar replaced with Real Time Gross Settlement Zimbabwe Dollar (2019) Africa…

A Brief History On April 5, 2010, the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia suffered a collapse, killing 29 of the 31 men working at the site.  The tragedy was the worst US mine disaster since 1970, and resulted in the Massey Energy Company being issued 369 citations for failing to follow proper mine safety laws. Digging Deeper Coal mining is hard, dirty work, and the miners are always at risk for catastrophic accidents and cave ins, especially when safety regulations are not followed exactly.  Even without spectacular accidents, the long term effects of coal dust in the…

A Brief History On February 24, 1920, the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (“German Workers’ Party,” or DAP) changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (“National Socialist German Workers’ Party”, or Nazi Party), with the word “Socialist” being added by the party’s executive committee, over Adolf Hitler’s objections, in order to help appeal to left-wing workers.  Today, History and Headlines takes a look at a frequently asked question, “Were the Nazis actually socialists?”  Does their very name mean anything? With their official party’s name being National Socialist German Workers’ Party, in English, or more precisely Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei in the original German,…