Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On February 10, 1967, the United States adopted the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, a new national law that deals with the succession to the Presidency of the United States, and a topic of recent debate during the Trump Administration.  Starting with the 23rd Amendment adopted in June of 1960, there have been a total of 5 new Amendments adopted during this author’s lifetime, and one Amendment that is glaringly absent by its lack of ratification by the States Digging Deeper The United States Constitution was adopted in 1789, a magnificent historical document that created a nation…

A Brief History On February 9, 1971, baseball pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first player from the Negro Leagues so honored.  Paige had starred in the Negro Leagues during the years before Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier” in major league baseball in 1947 when African Americans were not allowed to play in the major leagues.  In 1948, Paige became the oldest major league rookie at the age of 42 when he debuted for the Cleveland Indians.  In honor of Paige’s achievements and in recognition of February, the annual Black History Month…

A Brief History On February 8, 1904, the Japanese Navy started the Russo-Japanese War by conducting a sneak attack against the Russian naval fleet at anchor at Port Arthur, Manchuria, a key strategic Pacific port then under the administration of Imperial Russia.  Most of us are familiar with the Japanese sneak (or “surprise” or even “preemptive” attack if you want) on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii on the American fleet, aircraft and port facilities on December 7, 1941, that started World War II for the United States, but even before that famous sneak attack, the Japanese had already embraced the idea…

A Brief History On February 7, 1992, signatories from the 12 member states of the European Economic Community signed the Maastricht Treaty, so named after the city in which it was signed, Maastricht, The Netherlands, which more or less created a modern United States of Europe, although it is actually called The European Union.  The European Union, or EU, now has a total of 28 nations aligned with each other to a common purpose of open travel and trade and economic unity.  Boasting about a quarter of the entire world’s wealth, the EU is collectively the only other serious economic…

A Brief History On February 6, 60 AD, in the Roman city of Pompeii, an unknown graffiti artist noted that the day was “dies Solis” (Sunday), the first known instance of being able to attach a date to a day of the week.  While this bit of graffito is the earliest recorded account of a day and date being matched up, people had been naming days of the week prior to this incident.  The Romans called Sunday “dies Solis” meaning day of the Sun.  Read on for more about what the names of each day of the week mean and…