Browsing: May

A Brief History On May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, erstwhile Emperor of the French died on the lonely island of St. Helena, whispering his last word, Josephine. Digging Deeper The great man, a shell of his former self, in ill health served his exile on a desolate island. Little did he know, things would get worse. When Napoleon died in the custody of the British military, an autopsy was performed and the doctor snagged a souvenir for himself, the dead emperor’s penis. Apparently you could get away with that sort of shenanigans in those days. Napoleon is certainly not alone…

A Brief History On May 5, 1802, two of Napoleon’s generals entered into a pistol duel to the death over perceived insults between them. Digging Deeper Back in early 1801, the French soldiers that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon’s failed expedition there were trying their best to prevent an English army from pushing them out of the country.  The French commander-in-chief, General Menou, had only gotten the job after the previous commander General Kléber had been stabbed to death by a religious fanatic.  More of an administrator and less of a battlefield commander, Menou was in over his head.…

A Brief History On May 4, 1970, Kent State University in Ohio became famous as the scene of a tragic anti-war protest gone wrong, with 4 students dead and 9 wounded. Do you know what Kent State sports teams are known as? Hint: it has nothing to do with this infamous incident. They are known as The Golden Flashes. Many schools have teams named for ferocious animals or some sort of warrior people, but many others have names that leave others to wonder what the heck image they are trying to project. Since the NCAA forced schools to lose derogatory…

A Brief History On May 4, 1970, the M-1 Garand rifles of the Ohio National Guard were used in combat; against college kids! Digging Deeper With the United States torn by the War in Vietnam, protests at college campuses became common. President Nixon had promised to end the War in Vietnam when running for election in 1968, and by 1970 he had sent US forces into Cambodia to eliminate sanctuary for communist Vietnamese forces and disrupt communist supply lines. Many in the US saw this broken promise as an escalation of the unpopular war. Additional fuel for the anti-war fire…

A Brief History On May 3, 752, the Mayan King Bird Jaguar IV began his reign.  Not only do we not know what the heck a bird jaguar is, but there were three of them before this one!  On April 23 we told you people used to have goofy names.  Well, they still do, coming up with new ones all the time.  Here are 10 of our favorites from more modern times.  (Honorable mention: Yahoo Seriously.) Digging Deeper 10. Elton John. A name he made up for himself, Elton was born Reginald Dwight. Known for a time as The King,…