A Brief History On March 6, 1964, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, dubbed convert to the religion boxing champion Cassius “The Louisville Lip” Marcellus Clay, Jr. as Muhammad Ali. (Note: Elijah Muhammad was born Robert Poole.) Many White Americans did not take kindly to the name change, and many continued to call Ali “Clay” throughout the life of the controversial and highly vocal boxing legend. Sometimes sports name changes occur before the person is famous, but when they occur after the athlete has achieved fame it seems awkward for some fans to remember who they are…
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 March 5, 1496, in the wake of the tremendous news about the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, King Henry VII of England granted “letters patent” to John Cabot, an Italian sailor and adventurer, along with his sons, to explore the world on behalf of the English Crown. As Columbus was an Italian (Genoese) working for the King and Queen of Spain, so too was Cabot, an Italian originally from The Kingdom of Naples, employed by a foreign power. Cabot became (probably) the first European since perhaps the Vikings in the 11th Century to…
A Brief History On March 2 and 3, 1859, the largest sale of African slaves in the United States came to a sad conclusion near Savannah, Georgia when the last slaves formerly owned by plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler (1807/10-1867) were sold in order for Butler to satisfy his considerable debts. Known to history as The Great Slave Auction or alternatively as The Weeping Time, a total of 436 human beings were sold like pieces of property. Soon, the US Civil War would be fought, and slavery would end in the United States, preventing any such future crimes against humanity…
A Brief History On March 1, 1986, the Prime Minister of Sweden was declared dead, having been shot by an assassin minutes earlier on February 28, 1986. He had been walking with his wife down a main street in the Swedish capital of Stockholm when a gunman approached them and fired one shot at each of them. The Prime Minister, Olof Palme, was struck and killed by the assassin’s bullet, while his wife was also hit by a single shot, but not killed. Palme’s wife, Lisbet Palme, later identified Christer Pettersson, a Swede previously convicted of manslaughter, as the assassin.…
A Brief History On February 27, 1943, a most unusual event took place in Berlin, Germany, the capital city of the Third Reich, a government possibly remembered more for its virulent anti-Semitism than any other trait. That event, known as The Rosenstrasse Protest, consisted of non-Jewish people, mostly the non-Jewish German wives and families of Jewish men, who were protesting the arrest and planned deportation to concentration or work camps of 1800 of these Jewish men. Digging Deeper By 1943, Adolf Hitler and his NAZI henchmen had already gotten well along with their ultimate goal of enslaving and/or killing of…