A Brief History On April 20, 1862, French scientists Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard proved that Aristotle was wrong! Digging Deeper The state of science thousands of years ago was somewhat more primitive than today. Ancient people did not have microscopes, X-rays, CT Scans, gas chromatography, chemical tests, electron microscopes, centrifuges, and had not even developed the so called scientific method to test theories. People believed the Brandt Goose came from barnacles by that name, and a common belief was that maggots came from dead flesh. They did not understand microbes, DNA, or the Atomic Theory. Aristotle, the tutor of…
Browsing: April 20
A Brief History On April 20, 1657, the Dutch masters of the colony of New Amsterdam, later to become New York City, made the historic move of granting religious freedom to two dozen Jewish refugees that had fled oppression in Recife, New Holland, in 1654 when the Portuguese conquered that city. Digging Deeper This humble beginnings of the New York Jewish population was opposed by Peter Stuyvesant, the Director of New Amsterdam. Fortunately for the refugees, the Dutch West India Company headquartered back in Amsterdam saw otherwise and ordered the Jewish refugees be given sanctuary. By 1661 the first Jew…
A Brief History On April 20, 1818, accused British murderer Abraham Thornton was set free after his accuser refused to fight him in a “trial by combat.” Digging Deeper Thornton had walked a girl home from a dance, and the next day the girl was found drowned in a pit. Thornton was charged with murder but was acquitted at trial. This is where things begin to get a bit different from the American idea of due process. As was his right based on an archaic English law, the brother of the dead girl, however, insisted that Thornton be retried. Thornton, however, invoked another medieval English law…
A Brief History World War I (and the revolutions that occurred during it) was without any doubt one of the largest, deadliest, and most significant war in human history. It was also not without its more bizarre and epic moments… A Prologue On October 9, 1911, an accidental bomb explosion in China lead to the ultimate fall of China’s last imperial dynasty. World War I On July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, starting World War I. When a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Archduke (heir to the throne) of the Austrian empire to protest Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbian…
