Browsing: March 23

A Brief History On March 23, 2018, the President of Peru, Pedro Kuczynski, resigned in disgrace due to corruption.  Although Kuczynski was born in Peru, you might tell from his name that his parents were not, and in fact were from Germany, of Polish Jewish descent. Kuczynski even lived in the USA for a while before becoming a politician. Digging Deeper Some other national leaders of ethnicities other than the host country that did not fare well include: Alberto Fujimori, another Peruvian President born in Peru, but this time of Japanese immigrants. After a decade as President, in 2000 Fujimori…

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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on March 23rd.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered a speech that may well have led to the successful formation of the United States. On March 23, 1801, some of the Russian nobility and military officers that had been fired expressed their discontent in the time-honored tradition of killing the monarch! On March 23, 1857, Elisha Otis installed the first of his elevators at…

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A Brief History On March 23, 2018, the latest in a line of politicians forced from office across South America was Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the President of Peru.  Not so original himself, Kuczynski was preceded in the presidency by Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (president 2006-2011) who had also been forced to resign due to corruption, and then by President Ollanta Humala (president 2011-2016) who was also implicated in the same massive anti-corruption investigation, called Operation Carwash, or alternately by a sub-investigation called the Odebrecht Scandal.  Operation Carwash, initiated in Brazil 2014, is far from over, but has already reached…

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A Brief History On March 23, 1857, Elisha Otis installed the first of his elevators at 488 Broadway in New York City. Otis did not invent the elevator, but he did invent a device to keep an elevator from free falling in the event of a broken cable. His Otis Elevator Company dominated the elevator business for many years afterwards. (Other than Westinghouse, can you even think of a name of another elevator company without looking it up?) Today we list 10 products that have dominated their market so thoroughly that the brand or company name has more or less…

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A Brief History On March 23, 2013, Angelenos were shocked and then amused by a surprising bit of skywriting authored by pilot and comedian Kurt Braunohler.  Skywriting has been used since either 1915 or 1919, as its origins are disputed.  Used for advertising or personal messages, Kurt Braunohler found a new use for the venerable media. Digging Deeper Born in 1976 in New Jersey, Braunohler became a comedian first performing in street shows (Kurtbot) and moving on to working with notable other comedians (many familiar faces from Comedy Central and The Daily Show) with the Neutrino Video Project and Hot…

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