Browsing: August 6

A Brief History On Friday, August 6, 2021, the popular YouTube channel UsefulCharts published a video counting down the top ten greatest ancient dynasties of all time.  Our nomination for the “Greatest Ancient Dynasty of All-Time” has to be the “Five Good Emperors” of Rome, specifically Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.  After all, the Roman Senate bestowed the title “Optimus Princeps” or “The Best Ruler” on the second of these emperors, Trajan. Digging Deeper Ruling from 96 AD through 180 AD, their succession was of the “adoptive” variety, whereby each emperor would choose his heir by merit rather…

A Brief History On August 6, 2001, a tragedy known as the “Erwadi fire incident” occurred in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.  A fire broke out at the Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Erwadi Village, claiming the lives of 28 of the patients/inmates there.  A fire and fatalities do not make for a strange tale, except in this case those poor mental patients were chained down!  Run by a faith based organization, the mental home sought to “cure” its patients by caning and beating the patients while treating them with water from a holy shrine in the village. …

A Brief History On August 6, 1945, near end of World War II, a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber dropped a uranium gun-type (“Little Boy”) bomb on Hiroshima.  Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium implosion (“Fat Man”) bomb was dropped by another B-29 on Nagasaki. The bombs immediately devastated their targets and, over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 people in Nagasaki.  World War II was one of the most deadly wars in history.  Over 15,000,000 people were killed in combat. 25,000,000 more…

A Brief History On August 6, 1945, the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing about 70,000 people right away and perhaps a few tens of thousands later from wounds, burns, and radiation. Ever since this first use of a nuclear weapon against living, human targets the specter of possible nuclear war has hung over the world, casting a pall on humanity. Created by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board in 1947, the Doomsday Clock (https://thebulletin.org/2018-doomsday-clock-statement/) was invented as a way to chart the ongoing threat…

A Brief History On August 6, 1917, future actor, composer, and singer Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  Mitchum would live nearly to age 80 despite being a heavy smoker his entire adult life, with lung cancer and emphysema eventually doing him in.  In honor of one of my favorite actors of all time and in a plea to all cigarette smokers out there to quit this life shortening habit, we list 10 Songs with the Word Cigarette(s) in the Lyrics.  There are a bajillion of them, including several by Frank Sinatra, The Kinks, Blue Oyster Cult, the Cranberries,…