Browsing: August 30

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…

A Brief History On August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan fired shots at Vladimir I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, wounding him.  Had Lenin died at this time and not six years later, history might well have been different.  The fairer sex has sometimes turned to violence throughout history, either in domestic situations, for political reasons, in war or for idealistic purposes.  Here 10 such murderous women are listed, in no particular order.   Digging Deeper 10. Fanny Kaplan, Assassin. Her real name was Feiga Roytblat, and she was Jewish socialist revolutionary in Russia.  Already in…

A Brief History On August 30, 1813, a force of about 1,000 warriors of a faction of the Creek Nation Native Americans known as the “Red Sticks” attacked Fort Mims in Alabama, killing almost all its defenders and many civilians as well.  What later became known as the Fort Mims Massacre was the worst slaughter of white settlers by Native Americans in the South and probably the second worst overall. (Only the 1791 Fort Recovery Massacre in Ohio known as St. Clair’s Defeat may have been worse.) Digging Deeper As explained above, the Red Sticks were a faction of the Creek.  Many Creek had assimilated with the white…