Browsing: February 15

A Brief History On February 15, 1113, the reigning Pope of the Catholic Church, Pope Paschal II, issued a Papal Bull titled “Pie Postulatio Voluntatis,” recognizing the Order of Hospitallers, a military order of Catholic knights that had existed in the Holy Land since about 1099.  The order had begun in Jerusalem during the 11th Century in service of an Amalfitan (established by people from the Italian city-state of Amalfi) hospital that was founded in Jerusalem to see to the medical needs of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, part of the Christian Crusades.  Known more formally as The Order…

A Brief History On February 15, 2018, the nation mourns as the United States is rocked by another mass shooting at a school, this time a public high school in Florida. A former student, 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz, is charged with the murder of 17 people and wounding another 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. His apparent weapon, an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. Digging Deeper Gun grabbers reflexively blamed the gun, calling the AR-15 pattern rifle an “assault weapon.” Despite its appearance, the AR-15 is NOT an assault weapon, the definition of an assault weapon including an…

A Brief History On February 15, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a Bill allowing women attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Although this bill represented a major advancement towards the political equality of women in the US, women still could not even vote in every state and were under many other serious legal limitations. Digging Deeper (A quick word about President Hayes: Hayes, born and raised in Ohio, fought bravely during the American Civil War and was wounded a total of 5 times! Compared to our recent bunch of draft dodging Presidents and…

A Brief History On February 15, 1898, at 9:40 p.m., the US Navy had one of its darkest and yet most memorable days when the armored cruiser USS Maine ACR-1 blew up and sank while docked in Havana Harbor, Cuba. Digging Deeper Sent to Cuba to protect American interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, the Maine blew up and sank quickly, having experienced over 5 tons of gunpowder exploding in the forward part of the ship.  The giant explosion and quick sinking cost 266 of the 374 man crew their lives.  The Navy and the US in general was…

A Brief History On February 15, 2013, Russians were stunned by a meteor exploding 76,000 feet above Chelyabinsk Oblast! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the largest object to enter Earth’s atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event, coincidentally also in Russia. The 2013 event literally came out of the blue and with no warning, streaming across south central Russia from the southeast at a speed of Mach 60 (that is over 40,000 miles per hour)! Giving off brilliant lights that were brighter the light from the sun, the fiery trajectory was captured on many personal recording devices, including dash cams mounted on private automobiles.…