A Brief History On February 25, 1336, the 4,000 defenders of the medieval Lithuanian fortress of Pilénai thought they had no other choice but to make the horrible decision to kill themselves and their families after torching and destroying everything they had of value to deny their Teutonic besiegers the spoils of victory and the opportunity to kill or enslave them. Digging Deeper The number of women and children sacrificed is unknown, but even just the number of defenders, recorded at 4,000, is more than enough to rank as history’s largest mass suicide, eclipsing the 900+ dead at Masada in 37-31 B.C. and the 900+…
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 February 24, 1942, less than 3 months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the city of Los Angeles seemed to be under attack from a mysterious flying object. Digging Deeper Later claimed by the government to have been a false alarm, something had to have caused numerous air raid alerts to go off and give anti-aircraft gunners something to shoot at. Shoot they did, and a furious firefight ensued with .50 caliber machine guns and 3-inch artillery shells, about 1,400 rounds of which exploded over the city, showering it with metal fragments. General Marshall later speculated that unknown persons…
A Brief History On February 23, 1896, dentists all over the world must have felt the Earth shake, for on that day the Tootsie Roll was introduced. A delicious, chocolate-flavored candy roll similar to but not quite like caramel or taffy, these obviously popular treats have been around for well over 100 years now. Here the author lists 10 of the greatest candies of all time according to his own observations. Feel free to nominate any other treats you think should be on this list. How could the author not list pecan turtles? What was he thinking? (Stay tuned for…
A Brief History On February 22, 2014, the Headlines trumpeted the success story of Marit Bjørgen of Norway as she won the 30 km freestyle cross-country skiing event at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, giving her her 10th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Born in 1980, this remarkable athlete has so far won 6 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in the Winter Olympics of 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Though she is tied with 2 other women for total number of Olympic medals, she has more Olympic gold medals than any other female athlete. In addition…
A Brief History On February 21, 1973, the Israeli Defense Force sent American-built F-4 Phantoms to shoot down a Boeing 727 operated by Libyan Arab Airlines. Flight 114 had taken off from Tripoli and was headed to Cairo when it got lost over Egypt due to weather and equipment malfunction. Digging Deeper The two Phantoms intercepted the jet liner over the Sinai desert after it had strayed there from the Suez Canal. The Sinai had been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. The failure of Egypt to shoot missiles at the plane, and the seeming approach toward a secret Israeli nuclear (possibly bomb making?) facility exacerbated the situation, especially since…