A Brief History On December 4, 1619, 38 British settlers landed from the ship, Margaret (out of Bristol, England) along the North shore of the James River in Virginia in order to found a new town in the Virginia Colony called Berkeley Hundred. Digging Deeper Apparently oblivious to just how idiotic it is to arrive in North America in December instead of the Spring when crops could be planted and impending Winter would not threaten survival, these eager settlers were dropped off by the crew of the Margaret and by order of the Virginia Company of London (known by various…
Browsing: December 4
A Brief History On December 4, 1977, Jean-Bedel Bokassa crowned himself Emperor of the Central African Empire. Previously the President of the Central African Republic, Bokassa apparently thought many little Bokassas would follow, as he named himself Bokassa I. Digging Deeper Bokassa was a military officer in the armed forces of the Central African Republic when he seized power in a military coup in 1966, naming himself President. Even that was not good enough, for 7 years later he named himself President for Life, probably to make it clear he did not plan on retiring. In 1976, this egoist declared…
A Brief History On December 4, 1969, the Chicago Police took the “war” with the militant African-American extremists, the Black Panthers, right into the bedroom when they shot Fred Hampton, a high-ranking member of the Black Panther Party (BPP), to death while he was sleeping. Digging Deeper The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Police had been keeping tabs on Panther activity with the help of an informant, William O’Neal. O’Neal had given information on Panther whereabouts and weapons as well as details about the house that was raided at 4 a.m. on December 4, 1969. Expecting to find as many as 20 armed Panthers willing to…
A Brief History On December 4, 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Iberian peninsula, the American brigantine Mary Celeste was found by the British brigantine Dei Gratia sailing east without its crew toward the Mediterranean. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find this most famous case of an unexplained derelict vessel to have started when the ship first known as the Amazon was launched in 1861 from Nova Scotia. 107 feet long, 16 feet wide and displacing about 282 tons, the Mary Celeste (as it was renamed by its new American owners in 1869 after her purchase in 1867)…
