Browsing: April 27

A Brief History On April 27, 33 BC, Roman politician Lucius Marcius Philippus, a step-brother to the future emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC–AD 14), celebrated a triumph for his victories while serving as governor in one of the provinces of Hispania.  The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or, originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. Digging Deeper Philippus ascended Rome’s ladder of political and…

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A Brief History On April 27, 1945, Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and shot the next day, his body hung up in public and pelted with stones, spat upon, and generally scorned, an inglorious end to a strutting peacock of an egomaniac.  Many other leaders of countries have met humiliating and gory ends, sometimes deserved and sometimes not. Here are 10 examples of how far the mighty can fall when bloodthirsty enemies can get a hold of them. Digging Deeper 10. Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (1967). Holt disappeared while swimming in the ocean and…

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A Brief History On April 27, 1945, World War II was almost over, a disaster for the Italian people who had been led into it by their pompous and egotistical dictator. Digging Deeper Benito Mussolini, or Il Duce (The Duke) as he was called, disguised himself as a German soldier and traveled with 15 of his henchmen, including his mistress, trying desperately to get to Switzerland. The plan was to go to Spain after getting to neutral Switzerland where he would be safe from the Allies and his own people.  Of course, he never made it, for he was arrested…

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A Brief History On April 27, 1865, the paddle-wheel steamboat, SS Sultana was carrying 2427 people when she blew up, killing 1800! Digging Deeper The Mississippi steamboat was jammed with soldiers returning North from the Civil War, mostly Union soldiers who had been in Confederate prisoner of war camps (especially Cahawba and Andersonville). Crowded onto the riverboat designed to carry only 376 people, many of the soldiers were emaciated and ailing from their time in the horrendous prison camps.  The ship had started from New Orleans and had made a stop at Vicksburg (Mississippi) in order to repair a boiler. …

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A Brief History    On April 27, 2005, Airbus, the multi-national European jetliner manufacturer, announced the first flight of its “Super Jumbo” passenger jet, the A380.  Not content to give it just a partial upper deck such as the Boeing 747, the A380 has a full-width upper deck extending the entire length of the passenger cabin. Digging Deeper As the largest jet liner ever built, in its “3-class” mode, the A380 can carry 525 passengers in the first, second and economy classes.  In its all-economy class configuration, it can carry a mind boggling 853 passengers!  This capacity bests the 747-8 which has a…

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