Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On May 25, 2019, we celebrate another National Wine Day, and there certainly is a lot to celebrate!  There are wines for just about every occasion, and even specialty wines such as Game of Thrones wines to capitalize on the popularity of the iconic cable television series.  Even President Trump had his own line of “Trump” wines.  Wine for drinking when eating meat, pasta, seafood or whatever, they make a wine to accompany what you are eating.  Of course, being an alcoholic beverage, wine is also used for toasting, and Champagne, a bubbly variety of wine you…

A Brief History On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina had had it!  After hearing an anti-slavery speech delivered by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, including invective against Brooks’ cousin, the Senator from South Carolina, Andrew Butler, Brooks met up with Sumner in the hallway outside of the Senate and proceeded to beat the hapless Senator with the congressman’s cane.  Brooks beat Sumner so severely, the injured legislator nearly died. Digging Deeper Brooks, a Democrat, as were most Southerners at the time, had pounded Sumner, a Republican, the party that seemed to represent the greatest threat to the…

A Brief History On May 21, 2011, Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping had predicted that the world as we know it would end, with the return of Jesus Christ and the advent of the “Rapture,” followed by months of fire and brimstone resulting in the destruction of Earth. If you were paying attention on that date, you will note that the end of times did not in fact begin on May 21, 2011! Many people have predicted the end of the world or the end of the world as we know it, and so far, each has been wrong.  We…

A Brief History On May 20, 1521, the man that would become Saint Ignatius of Loyola was seriously wounded at Pamplona in a battle between the Spanish and the French supported Navarrese during the Spanish Conquest of Navarre, the region of land on the Iberian Peninsula between France and Spain.  Spanish soldier Inigo Lopez de Loyola, later known as St. Ignatius of Loyola and the principal founder of the Society of Jesus (better known as the Jesuits), had suffered a cannonball injury to his leg, but bore his injury with such courage that his Navarrese foes acknowledged his bravery by…

A Brief History On May 19, 1921, the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 became effective, a law also called The Emergency Quota Act, a law specifically designed to limit the immigration of certain people to the United States.  The goal of this legislation and previous legislation was to attempt to keep the ethnic and national origin percentages existing in the American demography the same, without allowing new influxes of immigrants to change the complexion of the American population. Digging Deeper Using the 1910 Census, the law required that no more than 3% of the same nationality already existing in the…