A Brief History On December 28, 1918, Constance Markievicz, while an inmate in Holloway prison, London, England, made history as the first woman elected to British House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP). You may notice her last name is not a typically British name, but her birth name of Constance Georgine Gore-Booth represents her English and Irish ancestry. Her married name, Markievicz, you may recognize as a Slavic appellation, specifically Polish. It is her husband, Casimir Markievicz, a playwright, director and artist that provides the background for the theme of this article, that of the changing and…
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.
Read More
A Brief History On December 27, 1512, the King and Queen of Spain issued the Laws of Burgos, a set of rules for how Spaniards were to treat Native Americans in the Caribbean islands colonized by Spain. Prior to this point there was haphazard ways of dealing with Native peoples, and ample incidents of cruelty and oppression. The European “discovery” of the Americas was only 20 years old at this time, and by this time it had become apparent some consistent rules were needed to keep with Catholic and Spanish ideas of law and morality. Digging Deeper The name, Laws…
A Brief History On December 25, AD 1, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, in what is now Israel. (It was Israel then, too.) Or so the story goes. Historians find some problems with the Biblical and common interpretation of the birth of Christ, including even the date, meaning the day as well as the year. The Ukrainian side of this author’s family celebrated Christmas on January 7 each year, which coincidentally is this author’s birthday! Yes, that makes this author the first person mentioned (besides Jesus) as being born on Christmas. Today we take a look at 10 famous…
A Brief History On December 24, 1952, the British Handley Page Victor strategic bomber made its maiden flight. The four engine jet bomber would enter service in 1958 as the third and last of the British “V” series of nuclear capable bombers, the other two members of the club being the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. Digging Deeper In the post-World War II Cold War era, the United Kingdom (often abbreviated as “Britain”) struggled to remain a major world power in the face of the nuclear arming of the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). In October of…
A Brief History On December 21, 1970, one of the great naval fighter jets made its debut flight when an F-14 Tomcat first took to the air. The US Navy had been considering a long range fleet defense fighter since the 1950’s, and had considered the Air Force General Dynamics F-111 swing wing fighter/bomber as a candidate, but problems trying to adapt that airplane for aircraft carrier use mandated a different plan. The results gave us one of the greatest fighter planes, land or sea, ever made. Digging Deeper Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation had a great history with the US…