Browsing: January

A Brief History On January 4, 1847, inventor of the modern revolving pistol, Sam Colt, first sold his 1847 Walker .44 caliber revolver to the US Army, and the pistol promptly made its mark in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) where the revolver gave the Americans a decided advantage.  Since then, there have been many assorted pistols issued for use in combat by the US Military, some successful designs that lasted many years and some not so successful designs.  Today we list the 10 Pistols/Revolvers that we think are the best of the bunch.  (We will also mention a few of…

A Brief History On January 3, 2000, the final new comic strip of the Peanuts (Charlie Brown, et al) series was published in the nation’s newspapers, ending a 50 year run as an iconic funny papers staple.  Less than a month later, the strip’s creator, Charles M. Schulz, died of colon cancer at the age of 77.  We still see “reruns” of Peanuts comic strips, but the days of getting new strips are long gone, as are the days of many other bygone comic strips that were once something for Americans to look forward to in the comics section of…

A Brief History On January 2, 1991, Sharon Pratt Kelly became the first African American woman mayor of a large American city when she was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C.  Only the third mayor of our nation’s capital, Kelly served until succeeded by Marion Barry on January 2, 1995.  In fact, it was the same Marion Barry that Pratt had succeeded as mayor herself! Digging Deeper Born in the capital in 1944, Sharon went on to graduate from Howard University and continued her education there until she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1968.  While at Howard, she…

A Brief History On January 1, 2018, we take a fond look back at the tumultuous year of 2017, a year in which a remarkable number of prominent people got fired.  In honor of President Donald Trump, who took office in January of 2017 and his personal catch phrase, “You’re fired!” we list many of the best known people that got the axe.  Many actually worked for The Donald himself, how apropos!  In fact, an astounding 21 of 61 Trump White House staffers were canned, an all time record.  (The Reagan Administration saw a paltry 17% go bye-bye, the second-place…

A Brief History On January 24, 1940, The Grapes of Wrath, a  drama film directed by John Ford, was released in theaters in the United States of America.  The film was based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F. Zanuck.  The film tells the story of the Joads, an Oklahoma family, who, after losing their farm during the Great Depression in the 1930s, become migrant workers and end up in California. The motion picture details their arduous journey across the United States as…