Browsing: January 16

A Brief History On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton, in one of his final remaining acts as President of the United States, posthumously awarded former President Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States.  Roosevelt was given the award for leading a charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Roosevelt thus became the only US president to have earned a Medal of Honor, although given the century plus between the action and the award, one must wonder if the award was given for political and publicity reasons. …

A Brief History On January 16, 1970, one of America’s greatest architects and all around “Renaissance Man,” Richard Buckminster Fuller, was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects.  Mostly famous for his use of what he called the “geodesic dome” in architecture, Fuller, known simply as “Bucky” to friends, was also famous for his 30 books and penchant for inventing words and phrases. Digging Deeper Fuller is so highly regarded that a form of carbon molecules called “fullerenes” are named in his honor.  Fuller also served as the second president of the genius organization, Mensa, from 1974…

A Brief History On January 16, 2014, one year ago today, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that the American National Security Agency (NSA) had been recording billions of global telephone messages, texts, emails and financial transactions in the name of national security.  To put this into perspective, at the time of the British article’s publication, 200 million text messages were being collected daily! Digging Deeper This mountain of data is not just being collected from foreigners but also from American citizens!  Supposedly done as part of an anti-terrorism program and with the oversight of Congress, many Congressmen and Senators were outraged and reported being previously…

A Brief History On January 16, 1547, Ivan Vasilyevich IV was crowned Czar of All The Russias. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Ivan not only becoming the first Czar (the Russian equivalent of Caesar, often spelled Tsar) but also getting the frightening moniker Ivan the Terrible! Ivan initially assumed the title Grand Prince of Moscow, what the Russian ruler was called then, when he was just 3 years old.  He managed to crown himself Czar at age 17, somewhat precocious to say the least. Under Ivan’s forceful leadership, Russia expanded by conquering adjacent lands in central Asia and Siberia. …