Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On February 3, 1953, one of the worst atrocities of the second half of the 20th Century in a tiny nation occurred when the Portuguese colonial administration and the planters on the island of São Tomé in the tiny island nation of São Tomé and Principe massacred 2,000 “creole” peasants (known as forros) when the peasants hesitated to agree to work the sugar cane, coffee, and cacao fields. Digging Deeper Portugal had colonized the small islands off the Equatorial Atlantic coast of Africa in 1493, and as was the fashion of the time, enslaved the native African…

A Brief History On February 2, 1935, Leonarde “Nard” Keeler testified about polygraph evidence in a Wisconsin courtroom at a trial of 2 men for assault, the first use of the polygraph, often simply called “the lie detector,” in court. Then, as now, debate about the efficacy of the polygraph was fiercely defended on both sides. Digging Deeper Keeler was the co-inventor of the polygraph, a machine that measures bodily functions in response to questions being asked the subject of the test, the reaction of those functions supposedly indicating whether the subject is telling the truth or a lie. Bodily…

A Brief History On February 1, 1796, the British government changed the capital of Upper Canada from Newark to York. Oddly named to the casual observer, the province of Upper Canada is actually the furthest South of all parts of Canada, and no, it does not have a high elevation, either. Digging Deeper Occupying the central area of British Canada (Canada became independent in 1867, and the French claimed a large portion called New France until after the Seven Years War), Upper Canada was a province that today is the southern part of Ontario, from the 1000 Islands region North…

A Brief History On January 30, 2018, we celebrate National Croissant Day in honor of that great “French” pastry roll prevalent among breakfast bars in hotels across the country. Flaky, buttery, soft and delicious, Croissants are great as they are, with butter and/or jelly, or as the basis for a light sandwich, including breakfast sandwiches (as Burger King so deftly demonstrates). For all the terrible things people say about bread and its supposedly negative impact on health, the fact is bread keeps people alive and has done so for centuries. Today we list 10 of our favorite types of bread…

A Brief History On January 29, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, the Baltimore writer of such classics as “The Telltale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Goldbug,” published his famous poem, “The Raven,” certainly one of if not the most renowned poem in American literature, and ranks among the most famous of poems. Today we list 10 great works of American Literature that feature a bird in the title. Digging Deeper 1. “The Raven,” Edgar Allan Poe, 1845. This poem is the work that got Poe widespread fame and acclaim, although unfortunately that fame never translated into wealth. The…