Browsing: March

A Brief history On March 19, 1943, the successor to Al Capone’s crime empire was drunk and despondent over a pending Grand Jury appearance. Digging Deeper Frank Nitti, 57 years old, was running the Chicago crime scene having taken over when he and Al “Scarface” Capone went to jail for tax evasion.  Capone had gotten 11 years in prison, while Nitti, Capone’s second in command, had only been sentenced to a year and a half.  When Nitti was released in 1932, he took over as the crime lord of Chicago.  Or did he?  Some evidence exists that indicate Nitti was…

A Brief History On March 19, 1987, under fire for sex and financial irregularities the star of one of television’s most popular evangelist Christian shows resigned! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Jim Bakker, star of The PTL Club in hot water for allegedly raping a show secretary, Jessica Hahn, and paying her $279,000 in hush money. If that was not cracked enough, questions quickly were raised about other aspects of misuse of charitable donations and fraudulent fund raising.  Bakker and his wife, famously over-made up Tammy Faye Bakker had been living like royalty, spending millions of dollars on an…

A Brief History On March 18, 1974, the so called Arab Oil Embargo came to an end, but any celebrations were certainly premature! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find two major factors involved in making this crisis as important as it was and still is. The first factor was that it had appeared US production of oil had peaked and the world believed that from about 1970 onward it would continue to decline more or less on a constant basis. The other issue at hand was and still is the Arab-Israeli conflict.  The US is pledged to guaranty the continuation…

A Brief History The United States Senate approved the observance of a National Rosie the Riveter Day on March 21 in 2017.  Americans celebrate Women’s History Month in March and frequently hold up the example of Rosie the Riveter as emblematic of great American women, but who was the real woman behind the propaganda poster? Over the years many characters in popular culture and our everyday life get to be so familiar they almost become part of the background.  Many of these people or characters or their real personae are nearly anonymous despite their fame, a contradiction addressed here. Digging…

A Brief History On March 17, 1968, the US Army proved just how dangerous it is to play with weapons of “maaaass” destruction!  (Yes, we went there…) Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the Army operating Dugway Proving Ground in Utah starting in 1941, a top secret testing area for chemical and biological weapons. The terrible effect of various poison gas weapons in World War I by both sides caused nervousness during World War II that somebody would once again initiate their use, especially when desperate.  The US supposedly contemplated using poison gas against Japanese dug in deeply in islands…