A Brief History On April 20, 1828, French explorer René Caillié became the first European to return alive from a visit to the ancient African city of Timbuktu. Yes, this ancient city located in Mali is indeed a real place, a mysterious and fabled city of almost mythological proportions to 19th Century Europeans, enough so that the Société de Géographie in Paris offered a 10,000 Franc award to any European that could travel to Timbuktu and return alive with an account of the mystery city. Digging Deeper Africa was still “The Dark Continent” to Europe in 1828, largely unexplored and…
Browsing: April 20
A Brief History On April 20, 2008, American race car driver and GoDaddy.com spokesperson Danica Patrick won the Japan Indy 300, thus becoming the first woman driver to win an IndyCar Series race. Patrick, all 5 feet 2 inches and 100 pounds of her, is reportedly going to retire from her stellar racing career after competing in the 2018 Indianapolis 500 scheduled for Sunday, May 27, 2018. Digging Deeper Born in Wisconsin in 1982, Danica became active in racing Karts at the age of 10, showing her developing skills by winning her class in the World Karting Association Grand National…
A Brief History On April 20, 1968, Conservative Member of Parliament Enoch Powell delivered his famous “Rivers of Blood Speech” against the continued immigration of non-European colonials into Britain. The speech was partly in response to the pending Race Relations Act of 1968 which made it illegal to refuse anyone housing, employment or public service because of race, color, religion, national origin and the like. The speech targeted non-white colonials from around the Empire and Commonwealth, notably Blacks and Indian sub-continent people. Digging Deeper Does this sound like the United States of 2016 and 2017? You bet it does! In…
A Brief History On April 20, 1918, Baron Manfred von Richtofen shot down the last enemy airplanes of his short but spectacular career. Digging Deeper The German aviator known as The Bloody Red Baron, just a few days short of his 26th birthday, lead the German fighter plane unit called The Flying Circus. The actual name of Richtofen’s command was Jagdgeschwarder 1, which is not as catchy of a name. The highest scoring ace of World War I, Richtofen was feared and respected by his French and British foes, whom he terrorized in his bright red Fokker Triplane. Richtofen was born in…
A Brief History On April 20, 1999, two Colorado high school students alleged to have been the victims of bullies went on a murderous rampage at their own school, killing 13 and wounding 24! The perpetrators rank among “The Most Evil People in History”. Digging Deeper Two boys described as intelligent, but not happy, were allegedly bullied by other kids and perhaps depressed or even psychotic. The amazing thing about this tragedy is that it could have been so much worse! The two deranged boys (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold) had made numerous threats and blogged about how they hated people…
