Browsing: January 30

A Brief History On January 30, 1835, for the first time in American History an assassination attempt was made on the President of the United States.  Richard Lawrence, a 35 year old housepainter that had immigrated to the United States from England pulled the triggers on 2 pistols aimed at the back of President Andrew Jackson, but incredibly both pistols misfired and the assassination attempt failed.  In the decades that followed, several other attempted assassinations of American Presidents have taken place, with Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy fatally wounded by their assassins. Digging Deeper Lawrence had come to the…

A Brief History On January 30, 2018, we celebrate National Croissant Day in honor of that great “French” pastry roll prevalent among breakfast bars in hotels across the country. Flaky, buttery, soft and delicious, Croissants are great as they are, with butter and/or jelly, or as the basis for a light sandwich, including breakfast sandwiches (as Burger King so deftly demonstrates). For all the terrible things people say about bread and its supposedly negative impact on health, the fact is bread keeps people alive and has done so for centuries. Today we list 10 of our favorite types of bread…

A Brief History On January 30, 1959, the Danish ocean liner, MS Hans Hedtoft, was on the return leg of its maiden voyage when it struck an iceberg off the coast of Greenland and sunk, the only trace of the ship ever being found was a single lifebelt that washed ashore. Digging Deeper In an eerie coincidence, like the RMS Titanic of 1912, the Hans Hedtoft was considered extremely safe, with a double hull, armored bow for ice breaking, and 7 watertight compartments.  Designed for service on the Denmark-Greenland run, she was built for hard duty in dangerous seas.  She…

A Brief History On January 30, 1945, Soviet submarine S-13 fired 3 torpedoes into the side of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner named after an assassinated Swiss Nazi that had been converted for military use. Digging Deeper The Wilhelm Gustloff had been engaged in evacuating German troops and civilians from the Courland area of the Baltic coast, transporting them back to Germany to escape the Red Army.  The ship was carrying over 6,000 troops, and with crew and civilians, total passengers probably numbered over 10,000. Massive damage was caused to the front, middle and rear of the ship, and the…

A Brief History On January 30, 1703, 47 Japanese samurai avenged the forced suicide of their feudal lord. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find that the Japanese code of Bushido was an Eastern code of honor similar to the old European code of chivalry. Samurai who became leaderless were called Ronin (a term made memorable by Robert DiNiro in the 1998 movie Ronin, set in modern times) and were bound by honor to avenge the death of their lord and leader. The 47 Ronin at the center of this incident were left leaderless when their lord was forced to commit suicide after having…