A Brief History On March 16, 1995, Mississippi became the last state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the amendment that outlawed slavery in the United States. With decades of Affirmative Action and other forms of perceived reverse discrimination, we take a moment to remind Americans how recently some of the outlandish discriminatory laws and practices against Americans because of race have finally been put to rest. Millions of adult African Americans were alive when some of these most egregious slights were in effect, so a certain amount of wariness about declaring the end to racism in the…
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 15, 44 BC, the Dictator of the Roman Republic (contrary to popular belief, he was not the Emperor, as that post did not exist at this time), Gaius Julius Caesar, was assassinated by Roman senators and political rivals (as many as 60 of them!), brutally stabbed to death. Prior to his assassination, Caesar is said to have been warned by a seer that he would be assassinated not later than “The Ides of March,” what the Romans called March 15th. Since then, we have frequently heard the cautionary phrase, “Beware the Ides of March,” and…
A Brief History On March 14, 1988, the earliest known reference to Pi Day was declared by physicist Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium (a science museum along the lines of the Ontario Science Center in Toronto or the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland). Unlike many of the so called “National” or “International” days of the year listed as dedicated to a particular thing or activity, we at least have some of the origin story for this one. Digging Deeper Celebrating the numerical ratio of “Pi,” a mathematical constant, the relationship between the diameter/radius of a circle and…
A Brief History On March 13, 1962, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer, proposed a “false flag” operation in Cuba where the US would conduct terrorist acts against our own installations at Guantanamo Bay! That the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff led by the senior military official in the nation would propose hijackings and bombings against US personnel and property is and should be shocking. President Kennedy fired Lemnitzer for making the proposal, so at least the President was thinking! (Of course, perhaps that decision got the president murdered. Any conspiracy theorists out there? Digging…
A Brief History On March 12, 2018, we join movie fans in celebrating Alfred Hitchcock Day, remembering all the great films and television this English director brought to us over the years from 1919 to 1980, one of the longest and greatest directorial careers in cinema history. (Once again, we could not find out who started this day and when. Alas!) Digging Deeper Born outside of East London in 1899, young Alfred was a loner, though he did well at Catholic school, although the strict physical discipline instilled a strong sense of fear in the boy. Likewise, Alfred feared the…