Browsing: July

A Brief History On July 7, 1985, Boris Becker of Germany became the youngest Wimbledon tennis champion by winning the tournament at the age of only 17.  Becker went on to win at Wimbledon 2 more times, and he won a total of 9 of the “Grand Slam” tennis events, as well as earning an Olympic gold medal in 1992 (doubles). Digging Deeper Michael Chang bested Becker’s record as the youngest winner of a Grand Slam tennis event by taking the French Open title in 1989, also at age 17 but almost 4 months younger. Mats Wilander was also 17…

A Brief History On July 7, 1456, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) was acquitted of heresy.  Unfortunately, the acquittal came 25 years after she was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake.  Every so often someone gets railroaded into being executed, imprisoned, or discredited, often to the point of having their life and reputation ruined only to be vindicated later, sometimes even becoming a hero.  Here we list 10 such people.  (So many people have been condemned to death or life in prison that turned out to be innocent you would need a book to list them.) Digging Deeper…

A Brief History On July 6, 1999, US Army Private Barry Winchell died for a stupid reason.  One of his fellow soldiers had beaten him with a baseball bat the day before while Winchell was sleeping, because Winchell had a relationship with a transgender showgirl!  How exactly that was the business of the murderer, Calvin Glover, is hard to fathom.  (The showgirl was a former Navy Corpsman named Calpernia Addams.)  Glover, among others, had been harassing Winchell about his “girlfriend,” and Winchell had won a fight between the two of them.  Apparently Glover was goaded about being beaten up by…

A Brief History On July 5, 1937, Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam to a Depression weary world.  A cooked, ready to eat meat product in a can, Spam was just the ticket for soldiers in the field in the upcoming World War.  It was also ideal for shipping to hungry allies.  Unfortunately, many folks think the salty, greasy, fat laden stuff in better suited as dog food, especially if you do not like your dog.  Britain and Australia got their share shipped to them, and Spam became a Monty Python joke.  Even unwanted emails are called Spam!  Still, it now comes in several flavor varieties (as many as 15)…

A Brief History On July 5, 2009, in an English field near the village of Hammerwich, a man looking for curios with a metal detector in a freshly plowed field found gold and silver objects dating back to the 7th Century. Digging Deeper Over the next 5 days he filled 244 bags with the gold and silver combat and arms related objects (such as adornments for weapons), but no female oriented jewelry and the like.  At this point the lucky man and the land owner notified authorities and gave permission to excavate the site, which was done by Birmingham Archaeology (funded by English…