Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On February 23, 1954, the first mass inoculation of children against the Polio virus took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The developer of the vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk, was hailed as hero and the scourge of Polio was basically eradicated from the United States.  No longer would “iron lungs” be common, and parents did not have to live the nightmare of their children dying or becoming crippled by Polio.  As with other vaccines, the Salk vaccine saved untold millions of lives and prevented untold amounts of misery, and yet in recent years vaccines have been under fire from…

A Brief History On February 22, 1944, American bombers accidentally bombed the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede, and Deventer, killing over 800 civilians in the Netherlands towns.  In previous articles, we have discussed the tragedy of good guys accidentally killing good guys, a phenomenon called “friendly fire” incidents.  While the United States military tries especially hard to avoid such incidents, including sometimes putting our own people in danger to minimize the possibility of killing innocent civilians, in war stuff happens, often bad stuff. Digging Deeper In February of 1944 the Netherlands were occupied by German military forces and had…

A Brief History On February 21, 1245, the first known Bishop of Finland, Thomas, confessed to charges of forging a Papal letter and torturing a man to death, among other felonies, and was allowed to resign his post.  Far from an isolated case, many church and religious leaders over the centuries have proven to be crooks, hypocrites, con artists, charlatans, sexual predators and profiteers, among other nefarious tendencies.  Many religious leaders have been the driving force behind terrorist activities, have been collaborators with brutal regimes, helped persecute and murder people of other religions, have covered up wrong doing by others,…

A Brief History On February 20, 1864, the Union and Confederate armies fought the Battle of Olustee, the largest land battle of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in Florida.  Although the tide of the war had turned in favor of the Union by February of 1864, this particular battle was won by the Confederate forces, more or less ending the ground war in Florida. Digging Deeper Union General Truman Seymour had landed near Jacksonville and was supposed to stay put, acting as a blocking force to prevent Confederate food and other supplies from moving through the area.  Encouraged by little…

A Brief History On February 19, 1807, former Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, the same guy that shot Alexander Hamilton to death in a duel while Burr was serving as Vice President, was arrested for treason.  Burr is just one of several US Vice Presidents or former Vice Presidents that ran afoul of the law or otherwise engaged in nefarious or questionable behavior.  Today we look at some of these ill-starred #2 politicians.  As always, feel free to tell us who you would add to this list and why. Digging Deeper Aaron Burr. Burr first earned notoriety…