Browsing: Beth Michaels

A Brief History Today, on September 18, 2014, Scotland is voting either yes or no on the topic of independence from Great Britain and the United Kingdom.  Only a simple majority vote is needed, that means 50% + one person. Update: As of July, 2020, Scotland is still part of the UK, although the Brexit fiasco looms over the union and the issue of the independence of Scotland is still a realistic possibility at some point. Digging Deeper Formally united in 1707 by the Act of Union which was ratified by both the English and Scottish parliaments, Scotland is now seeking…

A Brief History On September 17, 1991, model Stephanie Seymour starred in the first of two music videos for the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses.  Stephanie was also the girlfriend of its lead singer, Axl Rose, and became such after he had spotted her on the cover of a Playboy magazine and contacted her.  There have been many cases of a portrait, picture or magazine cover of a woman fascinating a person in such a way that it led to an action.  This article spotlights 10 such cases.   Digging Deeper 1) Anne of Cleves (1515-1557) After the death of…

A Brief History On September 14th, 2012, in a major invasion of privacy, the French magazine Closer published topless photographs of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.  This incident led to a major outcry as “Kate” was vacationing at a private residence, and many thought the paparazzi had once again overstepped the boundaries of the socially and morally acceptable.  Digging Deeper In our two previous articles from this series, we have already listed 21 women famous for being naked or who, at one point in their lives, had famously been naked.  In this article, we again examine 10 more such ladies.  We are…

A Brief History On September 7th, 1533, in what had to ironically have been one of the most disappointing births in history, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England made her grand entrance onto the world and political stage. Digging Deeper The first article of this series on the Six Wives of Henry VIII discussed the possibility that Catherine of Aragon might have lied about being a virgin at the time of her marriage to Henry.  This article focuses on the consequences of Anne Boleyn denying Henry sex and what might have happened had she not. By divorcing Catherine of…

A Brief History On September 1st, 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, was found dead in her cage by her keepers at the Cincinnati Zoo. Digging Deeper Now extinct, passenger pigeons were once the most abundant bird in the entire world.  Native to North America, it is estimated that there were 3-5 billion of them when Europeans first arrived.  Today their closest living relative is the smaller mourning dove. Their demise was caused by deforestation and the commercialization of their meat.  Losing more and more of their natural habitat, they were easy game for hunters. Their numbers already dwindling…