Browsing: August 2

A Brief History On August 2, 1990, led by dictator Saddam Hussein, the military forces of Iraq invaded and annexed their smaller neighbor, the oil rich constitutional monarchy of Kuwait.  Iraq was coming off a disastrous war (1980-1988) with Iran and Hussein was looking for an easy win. Digging Deeper This naked aggression by Iraq was poorly calculated, as the rest of the world, including much of the Arab world, disapproved of the action, and many nations joined forces to create a huge and powerful military force to counter that invasion, evicting the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991 in a…

A Brief History On August 2, 1943, the US Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands.  Kennedy would go on to become President of the United States, partially based on his status as a war hero for his exploits concerning his command of PT-109 for which he achieved national hero status.  Was that status deserved?  (See our many articles about Naval “Oops” moments) Digging Deeper John F. Kennedy was born into a relatively wealthy Irish Catholic family in Massachusetts, his forbears having dabbled in…

A Brief History On August 2, 2019, word of a decision by a New York City police judge to ask the Police commissioner to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo was made public.  Pantaleo was almost immediately suspended from duty.  Pantaleo was the officer involved in the tragic case in which career petty criminal Eric Garner died shortly after being arrested for selling loose cigarettes in 2014.  The case became infamous as the “I can’t breathe!” case, with Pantaleo being accused of putting Garner in an “illegal” choke hold.  (Note: Despite the fact that you will see over and over on television…

A Brief History On August 2, 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the French fleet supporting then General Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt was defeated soundly by the British at the Battle of the Nile.  As would often continue during Napoleon’s stellar military career, the French Navy was perhaps the weakest link of Napoleon’s military might. Digging Deeper Napoleon Bonaparte was one of, if not THE, greatest military genius of all time, and in fact has had more written about him than any other mortal man in history!  The exception is Jesus Christ, arguably not considered a mortal man.  (Note:…

A Brief History On August 2, 1916, Austrian saboteurs managed to sink the Italian battleship, Leonardo da Vinci as the great ship lay in Taranto harbor. Was the magazine explosion an accident, or did the Austrians use some sort of novel booby trap to sink the mighty vessel? Either way, World War I, like other wars, saw the imagination of arms designers and military engineers run wild. Previously we have discussed 10 Weird Weapons of World War I, and today we expand our list by another 5 goofy gadgets both sides came up with to pursue victory in this terrible…