Browsing: December 26

A Brief History On December 26, 2004, former NFL defensive end and perennial All Pro Reggie White was rushed to the hospital where he died from cardiac arrhythmia.  He was only 43 years old. Digging Deeper White played college football at the University of Tennessee (All-American there) and  then 2 years in the USFL before being selected by the Eagles of the NFL.  White also played for the Packers and the Panthers before retiring after 15 years in the NFL.  After 17 years of professional football, an extremely long stretch for a defensive lineman, the celebrated player finally retired in…

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A Brief History On December 26, 1982, Time Magazine broke with tradition and for the first time ever named a non-human as its “Man of the Year” (MOY) when they named the Personal Computer the cover model of its iconic issue. Digging Deeper Of course, the “Man of the Year” title is somewhat dated, as since 1999 the “award” has been officially called “Person of the Year” (POY) and the tradition goes back to 1927 when the magazine named aviator Charles Lindbergh as its first person recognized as most influential in the world, whether for good or for bad.  In…

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A Brief History  In 1965, Maulana Karenga (born Ronald Everett), currently Professor of African Studies at the University of California in Long Beach, created a new holiday he named Kwanzaa during which time African Americans could honor their African heritage.  Digging Deeper As a university student, Karenga had been active in the radical African-American movement known as Black Power and even created an organization he called “US” meaning black people.  This group became a rival to other Black nationalist groups such as the Black Panthers. Karenga’s US (sarcastically called United Slaves by the Black Panthers) clashed with the Panthers to the point of…

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A Brief History On December 26, 1919, the owner of the Boston Red Sox gave the owner of the New York Yankees probably the greatest Christmas gift in history when he sold Babe Ruth, the greatest baseball player of all time to him.  Red Sox owner Harry Frazee was said to have needed money to finance a play and so sold Ruth for only $100,000 in cash and a $350,000 loan. Digging Deeper The Red Sox had won the 1918 World Series and would not win another until 2004, often said to be because of “The Curse of the Bambino.”  With both his terrific…

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A Brief History Is December 26th the Most Wacked Date in History?  So many disasters occurred we can not even include them all! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find our cracked odyssey starting in 1846 in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the Donner Party, close to death from starvation and freezing, resorts to cannibalism to survive!  At least they apparently waited for their food to die on its own and did not murder each other. In 1862, the U.S. conducted its largest mass hanging ever, when 38 Native Americans are hanged from a single scaffold!  Incredibly, it could have been worse! …

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