Browsing: December

A Brief History On December 17, 2009, a large but largely rusted tub of a ship, the MV Danny F II, sunk off the coast of Lebanon taking with her 44 humans (accounts vary with numbers of people from 39 to 47 rescued) and (as far as we can determine) a record amount of domestic animals. Digging Deeper The doomed ship was built in 1976 as a car ferry, but had been converted to carrying bulk live animals for slaughter, a practice long opposed by animal rights activists.  A tad over 664 feet long and over 92 feet wide, the…

A Brief History On December 16, 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama passed the Great Fish River in what is now South Africa on his voyage around the Southern tip of Africa to reach India by sea, a previously not accomplished feat by European sailors. Digging Deeper Europeans named this river The “Great Fish” River to differentiate it from The “Nambian Fish” River.  (You would think ALL rivers are “Fish” River!)  The Great Fish was previously called Rio do Infante after the European that first visited the river in the 1480s (Joao Infante).  The main tributary of the Great Fish…

A Brief History On December 15, 1978, US President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would no longer recognize the government of the Republic of China (based on the island of Taiwan) as the legitimate government of China, and instead would recognize the Red Chinese government, The Peoples Republic of China.  This agreement went into effect January 1, 1979, and from this time the US has referred to “Taiwan” instead of the “Republic of China.” Digging Deeper During the 1930’s and 1940’s the people of China had fought a long civil war between the forces of Nationalist Chinese leader…

A Brief History On December 14, 835, Emperor Wenzong of the Chinese Tang Dynasty was given the news that “sweet dew” had formed on a pomegranate tree outside a military headquarters, a sign of divine favor for the Emperor.  It was suggested that the Emperor and his court travel to the lucky tree to observe the blessed event for themselves, which was readily agreed to.  In reality, this story and movement of the officials was all a ruse to get the powerful court Eunuchs (castrated public officials dedicated to a life of government service) to a place where they could…

A Brief History On December 13, 1945, Irma Ida Ilse Grese, age 22, was executed in accordance with her sentence of death for the crime of committing War Crimes (Crimes Against Humanity) for her service as a concentration camp guard at Ravensbruck and Auschwitz Nazi death camps during World War II. Digging Deeper The apparently attractive young lady thus became the youngest female executed by British authorities during the 20th Century. Irma was born in 1923 to a dairy working family in Germany, but her mother committed suicide by drinking acid in 1936, after finding out her husband was having…