Browsing: January

A Brief History On January 9, 1941, the premier British bomber of World War II, the Avro Lancaster, made its maiden flight.  “The Lanc,” as it was known, was the main British bomber that carried the war to Germany. Digging Deeper With its enormous bomb bay, the Lancaster was capable of carrying the biggest bomb load and the largest single bomb.  It was the only airplane of the war that could haul “blockbuster” giant bombs of 8,000, 12,000, and 22,000 pounds, while also carrying all the conventional bombs as well as anti-ship mines, incendiaries (fire bombs), and the “dam buster” specialty…

A Brief History On January 8, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced his “War on Poverty,” just one more of the “wars” lost by the United States.  50 years later, poverty still exists, despite the U.S. government having spent trillions of tax dollars to combat it.  Far from being an invincible superpower, the United States has actually lost many wars, and here we list 10 of them.  Depending on your politics and opinions, you may not agree with all of them.   Digging Deeper 10.  War on Poverty. With the U.S. poverty rate at 17% when the initiatives introduced by Johnson were…

A Brief History A few days ago, we featured an article hailing mixed martial artist Jon Jones for having cemented his position as greatest light heavyweight champion ever.   Digging Deeper Unfortunate news has come out on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, that he had tested positive for cocaine use in a pre-fight drug test (the results of which were only made public after the fight).  As can be read here, the MMA community is deeply disappointed by this news.  Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: The full consequences of this revelation are yet to be revealed, but we ask our…

History: January 7, 1959: The U.S. Recognizes Fidel Castro’s Government of Cuba On January 7, 1959, the United States officially recognized the new government of Cuba that was headed by Fidel Castro who, together with his revolutionaries, had overthrown the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. Batista had originally seized power in a coup after having lost a presidential election in 1952, so the U.S., expecting a return to democracy, actually welcomed Castro and his revolution.  Alas, it was not to be as Castro declared himself a communist in 1961, and it quickly became evident that he was just another dictator. Worse yet for the U.S., this…

A Brief History On January 6, 2014, only one year ago today, former Venezuelan beauty queen Monica Spear, age 29, was murdered on a lonely Venezuelan roadside along with her ex-husband during a botched robbery. Digging Deeper The beauty had previously reigned as Miss Venezuela 2004 and came in as the 4th runner up in the 2005 Miss Universe contest.  She had married British citizen Thomas Berry in 2008 and had a daughter, but the couple divorced in 2012. Of German and English extraction, Monica’s family had emigrated to Venezuela prior to her birth.  Monica herself had moved to Orlando, Florida…