A Brief History On January 16, 27 BC, the Roman Senate conferred upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus the title “Augustus,” effectively making Augustus Caesar the first Roman Emperor, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire. While previously the Romans had indeed conquered many lands, their government had been a Republic and run by the Senate until Gaius Julius Caesar (the man usually referred to as simply Julius Caesar) became Dictator of Rome, sort of a de facto king or emperor. If you notice the similarity in names between Julius and Augustus, you can be assured this is not coincidental. Digging…
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A Brief History On January 15, 2018, Irish lead singer of the Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan, died in her bathtub, drowned while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She was only 46 years old. Unfortunately for music fans, as well as the family and friends of the victims, too many singers have died before their time either directly or indirectly because of drug use and abuse. Today we list 10 of those incidents, some of which have happened in the very recent past, mirroring modern society’s epidemic of deaths caused by drug overdose. Please feel free to mention other singers…
A Brief History On January 14, 1943, the Japanese Navy began their operation to successfully evacuate the remaining Japanese land forces from the Island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands of the Pacific Ocean. Called Operation Ke, the withdrawal of the Japanese forces is used to start us off on our list of 10 Famous or Infamous Withdrawals or Retreats. The military calls such operations “retrograde operations,” the opposite of an attack or an advance. Comedians refer to these actions as “attacking in a different direction.” Far from being funny, retrograde operations, especially while still in contact with the enemy…
A Brief History On January 13, 2012, the woes of the cruise lines of the world became as bad as they can get when a giant Italian cruise ship was wrecked off the coast of Isola del Giglio in the Tyrrhenian Sea (part of the Mediterranean Sea to the West of Italy) taking 32 lives in the accident. The ship, Costa Concordia, was operated by a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines called Costa Crociere and had only been in service for 6 years when she was run aground and lost, joining a long list of miserable cruise ship experiences in…
A Brief History On January 4, 2019, the new thriller/horror movie, Escape Room, made its US debut. We had the opportunity to screen the movie several weeks ago and would like to give you our impression. Right off the bat we have to warn real horror fans that the movie is rated PG which means the gore is kept to a “safe” level. The tension and terror the movie creates is still there, so we expect most people would like the film, as we did. Capably directed by Adam Robitel (he of Insidious: The Last Key, 2018), the movie moves…