A Brief History On August 26, 1444, the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs was fought between an army of mercenaries representing France against a much smaller force of pikemen from the Old Swiss Confederacy. The battle was part of the Old Zürich War, fought between 1440 and 1446. Digging Deeper The Old Zurich War was one of the many wars fought in Europe regarding the rights to succession when a ruling member of the nobility died, in this case Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg, who died in 1436. The Toggenburg lands, which include Zurich, were contested along with…
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 August 24, 1950, Edith Spurlock Sampson, an attorney of African American heritage, became the first African American of either gender to become a United States delegate to the United Nations. At this point in American History, the lot of Black Americans had definitely improved since the pre-World War II era, but still retained a daunting level of discrimination against African Americans in many different ways, making the appointment of Sampson to the American United Nations delegation a major milestone in African American History. (See our other many articles about African American achievement.) Digging Deeper Edith had…
A Brief History On August 20, 2020, we finally got around to watching the third installment in the Deep Blue Sea movie franchise, the aptly named Deep Blue Sea 3. Released on July 28, 2020, the film serves as a direct sequel to the second movie in the franchise, Deep Blue Sea 2, and like the first sequel, #3 is a direct to video release. (Watch it “On Demand” or on a streaming site.) Picking up where the first 2 films left off, with the genetic tinkering with of deadly sharks, the mad scientists have created intelligent killing machines that…
A Brief History On August 19, 2020, we got the opportunity to screen The Stranger, a nifty movie cobbled together from a series of short segments that originally appeared on Quibi, a short form streaming service. If you are into the pulse pounding, high tension drama of life, death, murder and intrigue, this series/film is for you! Digging Deeper The series consisted of 13 episodes, each about 9 or 10 minutes long, with each episode representing an hour in a day from hell for a young Kansas woman working as a ride share driver in Los Angeles. Starting at 7…
A Brief History On August 21, 1986, a volcano in Cameroon hidden beneath Lake Nyos erupted and released a mass quantity of carbon dioxide gas, suffocating and killing nearly 1800 and 3500 of their farm animals. (When we say “mass quantity,” we mean 100,000 to 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide, or maybe as much as well over a million tons!) Although unusual, this horrible disaster is not unique, as 2 other lakes in Africa have a similar situation where volcanic carbon dioxide exists in enormous quantities, potentially causing a similar disaster. Those other 2 lakes are Lake Kivu on the…