Browsing: August 30

A Brief History On August 30, 1879, American Army and Confederate Army General John Bell Hood died of Yellow Fever, only six days after his wife and daughter died of that disease, leaving behind 10 orphaned children and a rich heritage as a fighting man. Digging Deeper Hood was born in Kentucky in 1831, and received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point from his uncle, Congressman Richard French.  Nearly expelled for being assigned an excess of demerits, Hood graduated #44 out of 52 graduates of the class of 1853.  The Superintendent of West Point during…

A Brief History On August 30, 1792, Napoleon Bonaparte was appointed a captain in the French Army, a major stepping stone on the path that eventually resulted in his becoming Emperor of the French.  Over two centuries later, on August 30, 2017, we honor that most august of monarchs, Napoleon I the Great.  Not at all the little blustering egoist of myth, and certainly not the Anti-Christ, Napoleon is much more than that, and we will share 10 amazing reasons why you should agree. Digging Deeper 1. Napoleon was born in Corsica, an island owned by Italy up until only 2…

A Brief History From August 29-30, 1813, The Battle of Kulm was fought near the town Kulm (Chlumec) and the village Přestanov in northern Bohemia, during the War of the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Digging Deeper 32,000 French troops under Dominique Vandamme attacked an army of about 50-60,000 Austrians, Russians and Prussians under Alexander Ostermann-Tolstoy.  The French were defeated with heavy losses on both sides.  The French lost some 5,000 killed or wounded and another 7,000-13,000 captured, including Vandamme, while the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian casualties and losses numbered around a similarly horrific 11,000 total.   For perspective, the…

A Brief History On August 30, 1898, American actress Shirley Booth was born.  Booth would go on to play television maid, Hazel, in the title role of the TV show.  She was famous enough in that role to make a television commercial for the new 1964 Mustang, an indication of her pop-culture standing.  Despite winning  a Best Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe for 1952’s film Come Back Little Sheba, after winning the Tony award for that role on Broadway in 1950 (and 2 other Tony awards), it is the  couple of television Emmys she won as Hazel we seem…

A Brief History On August 30, 1967, the United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by a vote of 69-11, the first African-American so confirmed. Digging Deeper Marshall, formerly the Chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and appointed a Federal Appeals Court judge by President Kennedy in 1961, had been working as United States Solicitor General (appointed by President Johnson in 1965), the first African-American to hold that position. It was as counsel for the NAACP that Marshall earned his reputation, successfully…