Browsing: February

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 17th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On February 17, 1370, the Teutonic Knights fought a great battle against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a battle known as the Battle of Rudau. On February 17, 1600, Italian polymath and philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in the Papal States of Rome for the crime of heresy. On February 17, 1801, the Presidential election of the United States faced its…

A Brief History On February 17, 1600, Italian polymath and philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in the Papal States of Rome for the crime of heresy. Digging Deeper Bruno had the nerve to believe in the Heliocentric model of the solar system as taught by Polish astronomer Copernicus, and that the stars in the sky were really distant suns that had their own planets.  Further, Bruno opined that unlike the Catholic belief, not only was our Sun not the center of the universe, the universe is infinite and therefore could have no center. As he was led…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 16th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On February 16, 1804, the U.S. Navy conducted a stunningly audacious raid to deny the enemy the use of an American warship by concocting a ruse that allowed American sailors into the jaws of the enemy harbor to sink a captured American frigate. On February 16, 1904, African American movie actor and singer James Franklin Baskett was born in Indianapolis. On February 16, 1923,…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 15th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper 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. On February 15, 1862, Confederate States of America army forces under the command of Brigadier General John B. Floyd…

A Brief History On February 15, 1996, the Chinese space program took a tragic turn when a Long March 3B rocket malfunctioned and crashed into a Chinese village, killing between 6 and 100 people on the ground. Digging Deeper The rocket was carrying an Intelsat 708 communications satellite into space, but veered off course shortly after lift off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.  While the highly publicized American Space Shuttle disasters come to mind when discussing fatal space incidents, there have been many failures of space launches that have resulted in the expensive loss of equipment and in some…