Browsing: February 22

A Brief History On February 22, 1974, US Army veteran Samuel Byck failed miserably in his attempt to assassinate President Richard Nixon, when he was unable to successfully hijack a DC-9 jetliner in order to crash it into the White House. Digging Deeper Byck first stole a .22 caliber pistol and used it to hijack a jet at the BWI airport, shooting a police officer and both pilots in the process.  Eventually, Byck was wounded by a police officer shooting through a window in the jet, and Byck then shot himself. Another notable bungled presidential assassination was the first ever…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 22nd.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On February 22, 1744, the British Royal Navy began an engagement with Spanish and French naval ships in a sea battle off the coast of Toulon, France in the Mediterranean Sea, a battle that was a defeat for the British and one of the most humiliating fiascos in Royal Navy history, The Battle of Toulon. On February 22, 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt…

A Brief History On February 22, 2006, a gang of 7 or more pulled off a heist of a Securitas AB depot in Tonbridge, England, absconding with a haul of  £53 million in cash.  Amazingly, they left behind £154 million because they could not carry it! Digging Deeper After placing a gang member as an inside man at the depot, the gang took the manager and his family hostage, fooled employees into allowing them to enter, and robbed the place of cash.  Law enforcement moved quickly and began recovering stolen cash and making arrests, and within a year 36 people…

A Brief History On February 22, 2014, the Ukrainian Rada, their unicameral version of a legislative body, voted to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, removing him from office.  In 2021, the American Congress is preparing to impeach President Donald Trump (as of January 11, 2021) in a history making second effort to oust the President.  While previous Presidents Andrew Johnson and William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton were both impeached, and in turn not convicted by the Senate and thus not removed from office, Trump was impeached in 2019, and like his predecessors on the hot seat, he was not convicted…

A Brief History On February 22, 1944, American bombers accidentally bombed the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede, and Deventer, killing over 800 civilians in the Netherlands towns.  In previous articles, we have discussed the tragedy of good guys accidentally killing good guys, a phenomenon called “friendly fire” incidents.  While the United States military tries especially hard to avoid such incidents, including sometimes putting our own people in danger to minimize the possibility of killing innocent civilians, in war stuff happens, often bad stuff. Digging Deeper In February of 1944 the Netherlands were occupied by German military forces and had…