A Brief History On August 4, 1693, the monk Dom Peringnon is traditionally believed to have invented Champagne. This belief is not the case, but many people still believe he did, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Many historical “facts” believed by the general public are simply not accurate. On July 23 and July 24, 2014, we listed 10 such errors. Here we list 10 more common misunderstandings. Digging Deeper 10. General Short and Admiral Kimmel were scapegoats. The Pearl Harbor debacle was blamed on the Army and Navy commanders of the U.S. forces in Hawaii, although many people…
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A Brief History On August 4th, 1761, the first veterinary school of medicine was founded by Claude Bourgelat in Lyon, France. Digging Deeper Claude Bourgelat did not study veterinary medicine himself; he had studied law but later directed an academy for horseback riding. He soon became an authority figure on horse management, and he wrote books on the morphology and anatomy of horses. His reputation brought him to the king’s attention, and the royal horse breeding program in the French province of Lyonnais was put under his supervision. In addition to founding the first veterinary school of medicine in Lyon,…
A Brief History On August 3, 1936, James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens won the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics and blazed into the record books. Owens went on to everlasting fame by winning 4 Gold Medals in those summer games, proving to Hitler and Nazi Germany that Aryans were not the “master race.” But what about the guy that came in second in that historic race? That man was Ralph Metcalfe. Digging Deeper Born in Atlanta in 1910 and raised in Chicago, Metcalfe, once co-holder of the world record for the 100-meter dash, was no slacker himself, winning silver medals…
A Brief History On August 3, 1921, the Commissioner of Baseball, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, reaffirmed the ban from baseball of the 8 players involved in the “Black Sox” scandal, even though they had just been acquitted in criminal court. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, the group included the immortal Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the game’s most popular players. The world of sports has since been beset by scandals over the years. Here we list 10 of the most famous and most interesting cases. Which cases would you include in this list? Do we need a sequel? (Hint:…
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. Here we list 10 of the weird weapons or contraptions dreamed up to help one side or the other win the war. What items would you add to the list? (See our follow on article,…