A Brief History On October 3 and 4 of 1993, US Army Special Forces known as Task Force Ranger fought Somali militia men in a frantic battle memorialized in the book (1999) and movie (2001) titled Black Hawk Down. Also known as the First Battle of Mogadishu (obviously more battles were fought there), this action resulted in 18 American soldiers killed and 73 wounded, as well as the death of a Malaysian and a Pakistani soldier allied with the US forces, and 9 of those allied soldiers wounded. This clash was the bloodiest battle US troops participated in since 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 October 2, 1789, President George Washington sent to the States for ratification a list of Amendments to the Constitution, a list we now refer to as “The Bill of Rights.” Digging Deeper These first 10 Amendments to the US Constitution would eventually be followed by 27 more Amendments that have been ratified by the States, giving us a total of 37 such Amendments. There are an additional 6 proposed Amendments that have not been ratified by the States, of which 4 are still “open.” Amendments to the Constitution are authorized by Article 5 of the Constitution,…
A Brief History On October 1, 1957, for the first time the phrase “In God We Trust” appeared on American paper currency. Although the phrase had appeared on American coins as early as 1864, it had only become the co-motto of the United States in 1956 (the other co-motto being “E Pluribus Unum”). The first bill to bear this pronouncement was the one dollar silver certificate, a move mandated by the passage of a congressional resolution on July 30, 1956 declaring this phrase as our national motto and further legislation ordering its inclusion on currency. Digging Deeper Apparently instigated by…
A Brief History On September 30, 1982, six unsuspecting people took Tylenol brand acetaminophen capsules that had been filled with potassium cyanide, killing those unfortunates nearly instantly. A seventh person later died by the same unknown perpetrator and copy-cat crimes killed a few more. Digging Deeper The Chicago area was rocked when a 12 year old girl from Elk Grove Village, Illinois died after taking a tampered with capsule, and later a man from Arlington Heights, Illinois died the same way, this time at the local hospital. Tragically, the man’s brother and sister in law also died after consuming capsules…
A Brief History On September 29, 1975, the first Black owned television station in the United States opened for business as WGPR of Detroit, Michigan. As we all know, various regions of the United States and sub-cultures speak their own brand of what we call the English Language, and by 1973 Robert Williams and Ernie Smith came up with the term “Ebonics” (Ebony + Phonics) to describe the form of English spoken by descendants of Black African slaves in the New World. By 1996 the use of Ebonics by the Oakland, California school board set off a tidal wave of…