Browsing: November 27

A Brief History On November 27, 2019, the Eagles of Ashland University, namely the Women’s basketball team, is resting after another great win the day before against a tough team from Walsh University, with the Eagles prevailing by only 8 points, their lowest winning margin of the 2019-2020 season. Digging Deeper We have previously discussed this fantastic collegiate sports program that won the National Championship (Division II) in the 2016-2017 season, posting a perfect record of 37-0.  The following year, the Eagles were once again poised to win it all but fell short in the Championship Game to a tough…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1942, the French Navy under the direction of Admiral Auphan scuttled a large part of the French ships and submarines in port at Toulon, France, in order to keep these valuable assets out of the hands of the German navy, known as the Kriegsmarine.  After Germany had rolled over France in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated to Britain, the defeated French sued for peace and found their country divided between Occupied France and nominally “independent” Vichy France in the South of the country.  The Vichy French, so named for the de…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II announced at the Council of Clermont (in Clermont, France) before a mixed council of clergy and lay people (landholding nobles) a call to arms that would become known as the First Crusade, a Catholic invasion of the Moslem world with the goal of “liberating” Jerusalem and the Holy Sites and putting them back in Christian hands. Digging Deeper The call to arms was made in part at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus (various spellings) based in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) who was having trouble dealing with constant…

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A Brief History On November 27, 2017, we celebrate Cyber Monday as we have on every Monday after Thanksgiving each year since 2005.  This pseudo-holiday was dreamed up by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman of the National Retail Federation as a way to encourage Christmas shoppers to make their purchases online instead of fighting the crowds at stores. Digging Deeper In 2005 it was noticed by 77% of online retailers that the Monday following Thanksgiving was a day in which online sales rose considerably.  In order to take advantage of that trend, online retailers came up with Cyber Monday sales…

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A Brief History On November 27, 1835, 2 Englishmen were hanged for the crime of sodomy (Section 15, Offences Against the Person Act of 1828) and a third man was convicted of being an accessory, receiving a sentence of 14 years “penal transportation.” (Not to be confused with “penile transportation!” Penal transportation means being hauled off to a penal colony.) The law the men were charged under had replaced the Buggery Act of 1533. Digging Deeper James Pratt (age 30) and John Smith (age 40) were allegedly engaged in intimate homosexual acts when the building’s landlord and the landlord’s wife…

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