A Brief History On May 12, 1864, as part of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse (Virginia) Union and Confederate forces fought in the “Bloody Angle” resulting in thousands of casualties on both sides, just part of what was by far the bloodiest and most horrific war in American history. ( Note: Numbers vary with sources.) Digging Deeper Part of the Overland Campaign, Spotsylvania (spelled Spottsylvania at the time) the battle pitted the Union Army of the Ohio (IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac) against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. About 100,000 Union troops faced about 52,000…
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A Brief History On at least four separate occasions electronic book burners known as “deletionists” tried to rid Wikipedia of its coverage of the internet phenomenon known as “creepypastas”. Deletionists are a group of bullies who focus their efforts on trying to remove anything and everything they merely do not like from Wikipedia. They typically, out of ignorance, refer to articles concerning topics they are unfamiliar with as “not notable”. Digging Deeper: A Timeline 26 March 2008: Allen3 nominated the article titled “Creepypasta” for deletion from Wikipedia. After a brief discussion in which only five random user accounts voted to delete the article,…
A Brief History On May 13, 1862, a black African-American slave, Robert Smalls, serving as a ship’s pilot on the CSS Planter, a Confederate armed steamship, managed to steal the ship and turn it over to US Navy forces outside Charleston, South Carolina. It seems the 3 white officers had decided to take shore leave overnight, leaving Smalls and several other slaves on the ship. Digging Deeper Smalls masterminded the escape of the ship with himself in disguise wearing the Captain’s uniform and straw hat. Not only did Smalls successfully present the ship to the Union Navy, but he also…
A Brief History On May 27, 1998, Michael Fortier was fined $200,000 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn authorities about the conspiracy to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Fortier’s wife, Lori, was also named as an accomplice, but escaped prosecution and was given immunity in exchange for her testimony against bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Digging Deeper On April 19, 1995, Nichols and McVeigh carried out a domestic terrorist plot in which they blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma city by means of a rented truck filled with explosives, killing…
A Brief History On May 27, 2015, in a surprising move, the overwhelming Republican majority in the Nebraska State Legislature joined with Democrats to overturn the Governor’s veto of the bill making Nebraska the 19th state (plus Washington, DC) to outlaw the death penalty. Digging Deeper The vote was 30-19. The governor vowed to execute the 10 inmates still on death row. Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Should capital punishment be abolished? If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on…