A Brief History On December 3, 1984, the terrible tragedy at Bhopal, India took place when a huge quantity of methyl isocyanate (MIC) escaped and exposed 500,000 people to this poison and other chemicals, over 2,200 of whom died immediately and perhaps 16,000 more deaths over the ensuing weeks. Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find the table set for disaster at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant built in 1969 to produce the pesticide “Sevin” and later the pesticide MIC when numerous leaks and other safety violations took place leading up to the disaster. Ignoring normal safety practices and…
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A Brief History On November 25, 1970, Japanese author, Yukio Mishima (a nom de plume), a man with multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize for literature, attempted a coup d’etat in Japan! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find an incredibly accomplished man, writer of novels, plays and poems, as well as directing plays and movies, acting and modeling, fascinated by politics of the right wing and veneration of the emperor. Mishima created his own emperor protecting/venerating militia he called Tatenokai, some sort of martial arts private mini-army like something a warlord would have in a Bruce Lee film! In an…
A Brief History On November 24, 1971, a man known only as D.B. Cooper jumped with a parachute from a Boeing 727 into history as the only unsolved airplane hijacker! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find a white male, mistakenly identified as D.B. Cooper, getting on a flight out of Portland, Oregon heading to Seattle, Washington on Northwest Orient Airlines. Carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit, D.B. looked like a typical businessman of perhaps just over average height and early middle age. Cooper handed a note to a stewardess who plopped it into her purse without giving it a…
A Brief History Fans of the film Braveheart may recall the heir to England’s throne, future king Edward II, having eyes for men rather than his French wife, Isabella the She-wolf. One of these men, Hugh Despenser, 1st Lord Despenser (c. 1286 – November 24, 1326), became a victim of that vengeful woman in one of history’s all-time most brutal executions, because as they say, well, sort of, “Hell hath no fury like a she-wolf scorned”! Digging Deeper Earlier on our site, we presented an article on hanging, drawing, and quartering. As that article mentioned, the process took multiple steps…
A Brief History Contrary to Pat Robertson’s beliefs, on November 18, 1803, Haitians won their independence, not with the Devil’s assistance, but with their victory at The Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution. The victory lead to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Digging Deeper After the Haitian Earthquake of 2010 took over 100,000 Haitian lives, Pat Robertson (Chancellor of Regent University and Chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network), proclaimed on television that Haiti, while under the heel of Napoleon III, had made a pact with…