A Brief History On this date, November 28, 1942, in the middle of World War II, the United States suffered mass carnage on the home front! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find that November 28, 1942 was the date of the infamous Cocoanut Grove fire, a blaze that took 492 lives. This horrible fire remains the second deadliest single building fire in U.S. history, second only to a theater fire in 1903 Chicago that killed 602 people. Of course, the human toll did not end with those deaths, but also included many more (hundreds?) burned or otherwise injured non-fatally. Since…
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 this date, November 27, 1978, Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down by an irate former supervisor. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find mentally distraught Daniel White was a police officer prior to becoming a supervisor, and after quitting that job due to ill will generated by his reporting on another officer for beating a suspect, White became a firefighter for the city. Elected as a supervisor in 1977 (similar to councilman in other cities), White had to give up his firefighter job as holding those two positions was not allowed. At…
A Brief History Okay, so we know Abraham Lincoln created the Thanksgiving holiday on this date in 1863, but what do Wallachians have to be thankful for? Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Vlad Tepes, later referred to as Vlad the Impaler, known to us more popularly as Dracula, having declared his third reign as ruler of Wallachia (modern Romania) winning the battle that made him ruler for the third time. Vlad had actually been ruler and been deposed twice before, re-seizing power each time. His father was Vlad II Dracul, making The Impaler technically Vlad III Dracula. The name…
A Brief History On November 25, 1970, Japanese author, Yukio Mishima (a nom de plume), a man with multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize for literature, attempted a coup d’etat in Japan! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find an incredibly accomplished man, writer of novels, plays and poems, as well as directing plays and movies, acting and modeling, fascinated by politics of the right wing and veneration of the emperor. Mishima created his own emperor protecting/venerating militia he called Tatenokai, some sort of martial arts private mini-army like something a warlord would have in a Bruce Lee film! In an…
A Brief History On November 24, 1971, a man known only as D.B. Cooper jumped with a parachute from a Boeing 727 into history as the only unsolved airplane hijacker! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find a white male, mistakenly identified as D.B. Cooper, getting on a flight out of Portland, Oregon heading to Seattle, Washington on Northwest Orient Airlines. Carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit, D.B. looked like a typical businessman of perhaps just over average height and early middle age. Cooper handed a note to a stewardess who plopped it into her purse without giving it a…