Author: Major Dan

Major Dan

Major Dan 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.

A Brief History On March 7, 1945, the fortunes of war cost a German Field Marshall his job, and five German officers a sentence of death!  Meanwhile, the same events earned two American soldiers the Distinguished Service Cross and another a Silver Star. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find German forces being shoved back into Germany on the Western front by General George Patton’s veteran army. The last obstacle to invading Germany was the Rhine River, historically an extreme obstacle.  The Germans had destroyed the bridges across the Rhine to prevent allied troops from crossing, but had left the “Ludendorff…

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A Brief History On March 6, 1836, the most celebrated defeat in American history ended in a massacre! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we remember the Alamo as an epic battle fought by American heroes like John Wayne (as Davy Crocket) depicted in the 1960 movie The Alamo. (Another major motion picture by the same name was made in 2004.) Texans especially revere the men martyred at the San Antonio landmark, Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie, William Travis and others.  The cracked part of the history is why the battle was fought. Texas at that time was part of Mexico, and Mexican…

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A Brief History On March 5, 1770, in an incident then known as “The Incident on King Street” British soldiers gunned down 5 American patriots and wounded another 6.  The British Army soldiers had been stationed in Boston to protect British authorities believed to be in danger from rebellious Americans upset with arbitrary laws passed by the British Parliament. Digging Deeper In 1768 the British Chief Customs Officer asked Colonial Secretary, Lord Hillsborough, to send the soldiers to Massachusetts for the protection of government officials due to unrest over tariffs and other laws perceived as unfair by the colonists.  Heavy…

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A Brief History On March 5, 1836, Samuel Colt formed Patent Arms Manufacturing, the forerunner of Colt’s Firearms Manufacturing Company which in turn became today’s Colt’s Manufacturing Company.  (For a companion list for this article, please see our list of “The Top 10 Famous Pistols.”) Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the reason for the founding of this company was the invention and patenting of the revolver, a pistol with a revolving cylinder that can fire 6 times in rapid succession (originally 5 times, later changed to 6) compared to the single shot pistols of the time. Colt’s Paterson revolver,…

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A Brief History On March 4, 1918, the USS Cyclops kept a date with destiny! Digging Deeper Cyclops, a US Navy coal carrier (collier) heading to Baltimore with a load of manganese ore. The Cyclops had left from Rio De Janeiro on February 16, 1918 and was supposed to arrive in Baltimore on March 13, 1918.  Mysteriously, she disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle and nothing of her or her crew has ever been found. Chalk it up to the Bermuda Triangle?  Or was she sunk by a U-Boat?  Well, no U-Boat ever reported such a sinking and…

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