Browsing: August 28

A Brief History On August 28, 1565, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed on the East coast of Florida and founded the city of St. Augustine, the oldest city in what is now the United States to be continuously occupied. Digging Deeper An explorer and conquistador, de Avilés was the mastermind behind Spain’s establishment of trans-Atlantic convoys of “treasure fleets” to ferry the riches of the New World back to Spain.  A major figure in the Spanish conquest of the New World, de Avilés made many voyages to the New World, establishing forts, exploring, fighting and trading with native…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 28th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 28, 489, the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, defeated the forces under Odoacer, King of Italy, at the Battle of Isonzo, thus opening the route into the heart of Italy. On August 28, 632, Fatimah bint Muhammad, the youngest and possibly the only daughter of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, beloved by Muhammad and by Muslims throughout the world, died under…

A Brief History On August 28, 1973, Stockholm, Sweden police arrested two bank robbers after a five day standoff in which the robbers held four people as hostages.  Incredibly, the hostages seemed to take sides with the robbers, a psychological effect later named “Stockholm Syndrome.” Digging Deeper The perpetrator of the crime, Jan-Erik Olsson, was a convicted criminal that had absconded while on furlough from prison.  A veteran of prior armed robberies, Olsson was armed with a sub-machinegun during the robbery. When police arrived at the scene, Olsson took hostages, and the standoff began.  Police brought Olsson’s friend from prison…

A Brief History On August 28, 1921, the Red Army disbanded the Ukrainian Makhnovshchina, an anarchist free Ukrainian territory in the Ukraine.  The Russians, during the Russian Civil War, 1917 to 1923, sought to keep the Russian Empire together while the formation of the USSR took place. Digging Deeper Russia has long sought to control Ukraine and Ukrainians, and Ukrainians have long sought their own independence.  Not only was the Soviet era, 1922 to 1991, brutal for Ukrainians, but the breakup of the USSR in 1991 left Ukraine an impoverished country with worthless Russian guarantees of their borders and national…

A Brief History On August 28, 1964, the City of Philadelphia erupted into a race riot when the predominantly African American neighborhoods of North Philadelphia in the Columbia Avenue area broke out into a full blown riot between the police and African American residents that had long complained of police brutality.  The riot, which resulted in 341 injuries and nearly 800 arrests, had been preceded by a concerted effort by the City of Philadelphia and its police department to repair and reinforce rapport between the police and Black residents.  Apparently, those efforts came up short! Digging Deeper As the United…