Browsing: Lists

A Brief History On July 29, 1973, British race car driver Roger Williamson met his death when his Formula 1race car crashed at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort Circuit in the Netherlands.  The 25 year old 2 time British Formula 3 champion was trapped under his flipped car, not seriously hurt from the crash, but was burned to death as the car was engulfed in flames. Race officials made no effort to help, although another driver heroically abandoned the race and tried to rescue Williamson, failing to flip the car over, then grabbing a fire extinguisher.  Many thousands of…

A Brief History On July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, starting World War I.  When a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Archduke (heir to the throne) of the Austrian empire to protest Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbian territory, he never could have seen the incredible consequences of the worst war in human history (until World War II).  Sometimes assassinations or attempted assassinations result in events unfolding differently than those anticipated by the assassin.  Here we list 10 such incidents, in no particular order.   Digging Deeper 10. Franz Ferdinand, 1914. As described above, all that was accomplished was the anger…

A Brief History On July 27, 1890, painter Vincent van Gogh shot himself, dying 2 days later.  Commemorated in the Don McLean song, Vincent, van Gogh was a tormented person.  It seems that great painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, actors and other creative people are often beset by their own demons that leads them to self-destruction.  Here we list 10 of those sad cases, representing a variety of art forms.   Digging Deeper 10. Mary Kay Bergman, 1999. The voices of South Park’s Ms. Cartman (Cartman’s mom) and Wendy, she also was the official voice of Snow White for Disney.  Bergman was the voice of Timmy Turner in The Fairly Odd Parents…

A Brief History On July 26, 1948, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which ordered the desegregation of the US military.  At times presidents cannot or will not wait for congress to act on a subject and they take it into their own hands by issuing an “Executive Order.”  President Obama is currently under attack by Republicans for using this non-legislative authority, somewhat hypocritically when in fact George W. Bush used many more executive orders than Obama (291 to 183).  Franklin Roosevelt holds the record for the most executive orders with a whopping 3721.  Second place is Woodrow Wilson with…

A Brief History On July 26, 1767, Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, and one-time mistress of King George II of England, died. Henrietta has the distinction of probably being the only mistress in history to be unwanted; George II much preferring the company of his wife to her. Digging Deeper What also sets Henrietta Howard apart is that she was a different nationality from her royal lover. This article will list 10 women who slept with emperors, czars, kings and princes but were not their subjects. Mistresses such as Cleopatra or Wallis Simpson who eventually married their lovers will not…