A Brief History On November 8, 1973, the severed right ear of John Paul Getty III was delivered to a newspaper with a ransom note demanding $3.2 million in return for the kidnapped heir to the Getty fortune. The 17 year old John Paul Getty III had been living in Rome, Italy, where he was raised by his father, the son of Jean Paul Getty (usually referred to as JP Getty), the oil magnate that amassed a fortune of over $2 billion by the time of his death in 1976. Digging Deeper The younger Getty lived in Rome while his…
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 7, 1933, Fiorello La Guardia was first elected Mayor of the City of New York, an office he would hold until December 31, 1945. As any mayor of New York City is automatically well known to all of America, so was La Guardia, but in his case perhaps a lot more famous than usual. Heck, a major airport is named after him! Also on November 7 (1967 this time), Carl Stokes of Cleveland became the first African American man elected as mayor of a major American city. Since it is way too hard for our…
A Brief History On November 6, 2017, we follow up our article from yesterday about Presidents of the US and their smoking habits with an answer to a reader query about the status of women vis a vis smoking through the years. At the end of the article we list some of our sources, and we would particularly like to recommend the bottom web site as a “must read” article for any woman or girl that smokes or is considering taking up the habit. Digging Deeper Historically, women have smoked less than men, but certainly not to the point of…
A Brief History On November 5, 2017, with President Donald J. Trump under fire from seemingly all sides (sometimes including us!), we take this opportunity to congratulate him on setting a fine example to the youth of America by neither smoking nor drinking alcohol. Nor does he use illegal drugs. Our previous President, Barack Obama, was criticized for being a smoker, a terrible example for impressionable youngsters that could conceivably chose to smoke with the excuse that, “Hey, the President does!” Digging Deeper Yes, Barack Hussein Obama smoked, although he tried to keep it out of public view and promised…
A Brief History On November 4, 1955, Denton True “Cy” Young died, leaving the Earth as the greatest major league baseball pitcher in history, so great in fact, that the annual award for the best pitcher in each major league is named in his honor. (Why is he the greatest of all time? Well, 511 wins say he is!) Digging Deeper Born in 1867 in Gilmore, Ohio (Tuscarawas County), Young picked up the nickname Cy, short for “Cyclone,” because of his devastating fastball that would break up boards when an errant pitch hit them “like a cyclone.” Prior to starting…