Browsing: January

A Brief History On January 25, 1980, India honored the Albanian Nun, known as Mother Teresa, with their highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna.  Born in what is now North Macedonia, Teresa would go on to found the Missionaries of Charity and minister to the poor and dying people of India, eventually becoming a Catholic Saint in 2016 almost two decades after her death. Digging Deeper Did this woman deserve these accolades?  Some say no!  Critics claim that though she received millions of dollars’ worth of contributions, her facilities did not provide medical care or comfort to the dying poor…

A Brief History On January 24, 2018, defrocked medical doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 175 years in prison for molesting American female gymnasts over the course of his career as the gymnastic team’s doctor.  On January 24, 1989, serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair.  Which of these creeps is hated more? Digging Deeper For most Americans, any criminal that uses children as victims is generally held in the most contempt of all criminals.  Nassar was assaulted by other prisoners almost immediately upon being sent to prison and in 2023 he was viciously stabbed by another convict.…

A Brief History On January 23, 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped in downtown Karachi, Pakistan by Islamist militants. Pearl was investigating a link between al Qaeda and Pakistan at the time.  When the US failed to meet the kidnappers’ demands, Pearl was beheaded. Digging Deeper Some other high-profile kidnappings include: Julius Caesar, in 75 BC at the age of about 25, was captured by pirates and held for ransom, returning after his release to kill all his kidnappers! Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann was hiding in Argentina in 1960 when the Israeli Mossad kidnapped him and took…

A Brief History On January 22, 2009, only a couple days after being sworn in, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected terrorists were being held.  Congress overrode the President, and Gitmo stayed open.  Obama also suffered the failure to get universal national health care passed and had to settle for a watered-down version known as “Obamacare.” Digging Deeper Almost all presidents fail at certain projects and here we list a few: President Nixon, who promised “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but the North Vietnamese were not…

A Brief History On January 21, 2009, Israel pulled its military forces out of the Gaza strip after a three-week war with Palestinian Islamic extremist group Hamas.  While fighting in and around Gaza continued in the following weeks, the scale of the fighting was a mere shadow of the Israeli-Hamas fighting that began in October of 2023. Digging Deeper In what was called The Gaza War of 2008-2009, 13 Israelis and between 1,100 and 1,400 Palestinians were killed.  Lasting from December 27, 2008 until January 18, 2009, the war was just one of many Arab-Israeli wars and other armed and…