Browsing: October 30

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on October 30th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On October 30, 1501, the long history of sordid affairs involving popes and goings on in the Vatican reached a bizarre new level when Cesare Borgia, a cardinal in the Catholic Church and son of Pope Alexander VI, hosted “The Ballet of Chestnuts” at his father’s residence, the Papal Palace. On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800…

A Brief History On October 30, 1961, former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin suffered the indignity of having his body removed from a place of honor in Lenin’s Tomb and parked in a regular grave with a plain granite marker.  Stalin’s body suffered only a minor indignity compared to some other former national leaders, and here we discuss a few of those. Digging Deeper Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of Britain, was dug up in 1661, three years after his death to be tried and “executed,” including beheading. Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, died in exile in 1821, and someone removed…

A Brief History On October 30, 1985, the American Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off on its 9th mission, a successful flight that lasted over seven days and was notable for having taken the first Dutch astronaut into space. Digging Deeper Challenger had a successful career from its first flight into space in April of 1983 through its 9th flight in October and November of 1985, spending nearly 1500 hours in space flight.  Unfortunately, as we have chronicled, on January 28, 1986, the magnificent space machine blew up and went to pieces only 73 seconds into its 10th and final flight,…

A Brief History On October 30, 1806, 5,300 Prussian soldiers defending the city of Stettin surrendered to only 800 French soldiers commanded by General Lassalle, falling for the ruse that the French force was much larger.  We previously used this example of wartime trickery as the start of our article, “Fooled You! Battles Won by Trickery.”  Today we continue to explore the use of ruses, false information, decoys, fakes and general trickery in the conduct of warfare.  Here are some more such incidents, and like our previous article, concerning World War II (with other tricky battles from other wars to…

A Brief History On October 30, 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of the greatest writers in Russian literature, completed his novel The Gambler with help from his future wife, the then twenty-year-old Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina.  A writers’ work can come from various sources of inspiration, whether they are sharing their knowledge on certain topics, reflecting on specific occurrences, connecting with deep emotions or letting their imagination run wild. Perhaps the most powerful messages are those influenced by real events paired with a strong need to spread what we have to say out in the world.  Such is true for Dostoevsky, who undoubtedly put…