A Brief History On December 1, 1958, a terrible fire roared through a Chicago parochial school called Our Lady of the Angels, ultimately resulting in the deaths of 92 children and three of the nuns on staff. Operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the school became instantly infamous as the leading headline in the United States and around the world. The sole bright side of the tragedy was that the shocking death toll and subsequent enormous publicity resulted in many safety reforms for American schools. On October 13, 2013, we ran an article titled “10 Religious Activity Disasters…
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 November 30, 1786, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I of The Grand Duchy of Tuscany initiated the first ban on capital punishment of any modern state. Contrary to other European leaders, and for that matter, virtually all World leaders, apparently Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire) must have thought the death penalty was not essential for those in power to remain in power. A proponent of “Enlightened Absolutism” (alternately called “Enlightened Despotism”), Leopold believed in the power of a monarchy to be used for the benefit of the people, but in a benevolent…
A Brief History On November 29, 1987, Korean Air Lines Flight 858 exploded over the Andaman Sea, downing the jet liner and killing all 115 people aboard the plane, mostly people from South Korea. The cause of the deadly blast was a bomb planted by North Korean “agents,” basically state sponsored terrorists, at the behest of the son of North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung and future dictator of North Korea himself, Kim Jong-il. Normally, such a state sponsored act of terrorism could easily be the casus belli for declaring war against the country that perpetrated such an outrage against humanity,…
A Brief History On November 27, 1942, the French Navy under the direction of Admiral Auphan scuttled a large part of the French ships and submarines in port at Toulon, France, in order to keep these valuable assets out of the hands of the German navy, known as the Kriegsmarine. After Germany had rolled over France in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated to Britain, the defeated French sued for peace and found their country divided between Occupied France and nominally “independent” Vichy France in the South of the country. The Vichy French, so named for the de…
A Brief History On November 26, 2018, we once again revisit a subject we have covered twice before (“Dear Santa I Want a Gun for Christmas” and “Dear Santa I Want a Gun for Christmas, Redux.”). With so many guns and so little time, anyone interested in history, especially the history of warfare, interested in hunting, interested in competitive shooting, interested in gun collecting, and of course, anyone interested in self-defense would be interested in receiving just the particular firearm they may want for Christmas. Today we list some of our selections for this year. Digging Deeper 1. Box Magazine…