A Brief History On March 16, 1995, Mississippi became the last state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the amendment that outlawed slavery in the United States. With decades of Affirmative Action and other forms of perceived reverse discrimination, we take a moment to remind Americans how recently some of the outlandish discriminatory laws and practices against Americans because of race have finally been put to rest. Millions of adult African Americans were alive when some of these most egregious slights were in effect, so a certain amount of wariness about declaring the end to racism in the…
Browsing: March 16
A Brief History On March 16, 1945, less than a month before Allied armies captured the city, British Lancaster bombers dropped 1207 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on the German city of Würzburg, killing 5000 people and destroying about 90% of the buildings, including many historic Medieval structures. Digging Deeper Despite the city being home to 40 hospitals and lacking war industries or military targets, the British bombing commanders decided to bomb the city for its strategic importance as a road and rail hub, and to destroy the morale of the German people. Despite its name, the German…
A Brief History On March 15 and 16, 1952, over a 24 hour period the most rain ever recorded in a 24 hour period fell on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, on the area known as Cilaos. An unbelievable 73 inches of the wet stuff fell on Cilaos, a commune first settled by escaped Malagasy slaves known as “Black-Browns.” Digging Deeper Apparently slaves in that area of the world were referred to as “Browns,” and runaway slaves (I prefer the term, escaped slaves) were called “Black-Browns.” Believing themselves safe on the highest ground of the island, these people were…
A Brief History Earlier today, we noted how the 50 millionth Ford automobile rolled off the assembly line, a shiny new Thunderbird! Nevertheless, not all automotive ideas have been winners… Digging Deeper 10. Bricklin (1974-1976) The only car ever with gull wing doors that opened and closed electrically looked good, but was not good. Only 2,854 of the Canadian cars were built, costing the province of New Brunswick $23 million of their investment. Built with either an AMC or Ford V-8, the Bricklin had no ashtrays, which made it ahead of its time for sure! 9. Cadillac Cimmaron (1982-1988) Based…
A Brief History On March 16, 1958, the 50 millionth Ford automobile rolled off the assembly line, a shiny new Thunderbird! Digging Deeper Henry Ford, who did not actually invent the automobile, certainly is the man most responsible for making it what it is today. Ford’s first attempt at a car company, The Henry Ford Company, became the Cadillac Motor Company after Ford left that business in 1902. In 1903, Ford formed the Ford Motor Company with the help of investors impressed by his success racing cars (which included the Dodge brothers that ended up starting their own namesake car…
