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A Brief History On December 17, 1989, The Simpsons premiered on American television with their first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.”  Not only does The Simpsons rank as probably the greatest animated television show of all time, it is also the longest running scripted primetime television series in TV history.  Today we take a look at what we consider the 5 greatest animated television series of all time.  As always, feel free to disagree with those that we have chosen and tell us which shows we should not have picked and what shows we have overlooked.  (Sorry, Looney…

A Brief History On December 15, 1973, with a vote of 13-0, the American Psychiatric Association agreed to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders.  We marked this historical event with our article, “Is Homosexuality a Mental Disorder?”  Today we take a look at some of the many famous or important historical figures that are known or believed to have been homosexual or something other than straight heterosexual.  Some on the list you may be familiar with, while others may come as a surprise.  Some on the list may only be the subject of conjecture, with no definitive historical…

A Brief History On December 12, 1937, the USS Panay, a gunboat afloat on the Yangtze River near the city of Nanking (now called Nanjing) was attacked by Japanese military aircraft and sunk, with the loss of three American lives.  The United States and Japan were not at war and the incident was claimed by the Japanese to be due to mistaken identity of the American ship, despite clear American flags painted on the decks.  The Panay was not the first, nor the last, American vessel to be attacked by forces of another country not at war with the United…

A Brief History On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (Britain, et al), signed the Instrument of Abdication, basically his resignation letter.  King George VI followed him onto the throne and life went on for all involved, especially for Edward who allegedly never really wanted to be King and was free to marry “the woman I love” now that he was not constrained by Royal obligations.  Today we list some national leaders that resigned, either in defeat, in protest, or in disgrace.  As hard as it must be to quit a top tier corporate job (such…

A Brief History On December 5, 1847, Jefferson Finis Davis of Mississippi was elected to the United States Senate.  He had been appointed to the Senate by the Governor of Mississippi in August of 1847.  Davis went on to serve as the US Secretary of War (1853-1857) and was reelected to the Senate in 1857, serving until he resigned in 1861 due to the onset of the American Civil War.  Davis went on to the notoriety of being the only President of the Confederate States of America, the leader of a movement that would see the United States torn apart. …