A Brief History On October 30, 1806, 5300 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. Lieutenant General Friedrich von Romberg must have been awful embarrassed when he found out the blunder he had made! Stettin, now known as Szczecin, Poland, was a fortified city, making the surrender all the more ridiculous. Apparently during campaigns at this time Prussian soldiers were not the Spartans of their day that Prussians are often portrayed as, since other surrenders to inferior forces had…
Browsing: October 30
A Brief History On October 30, 1995, the people of the Canadian province of Quebec voted by the narrow margin of 50.58% to 49.42% to remain a Canadian province. Quebec, the largest province of Canada by size, was the heart of New France until the British won the Seven Years War in 1763, and with it sovereignty over Quebec. Digging Deeper The Quebecois as the people call themselves maintain their French heritage, and the French language is spoken by the majority of people in the province. A reminder of this French heritage can be found on their automobile license plates,…
A Brief History 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. What made this gala party so special was that it was attended by 50 prostitutes for the pleasure of the guests. Digging Deeper Also at the party were the Pope and his daughter Lucretia. The 50 “party girls” were at first clothed as they danced with and for the guests, but they then removed…
A Brief History October 30th, also known as “Mischief Night” or “Devil’s Night,” is usually known for various pranks practiced prior to Halloween by children, teenagers and sometimes even adults. Perhaps instead of going out terrorizing the land, dear reader, you might curl up with a warm computer and watch some of the creepiest videos to appear on YouTube! Digging Deeper In the first of our three-part series, we turn to videos concerning topics that may or may not be real. We are of course referring to internet urban legends known as creepypastas. While YouTube is filled with videos on…
A Brief History On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the North of Russia; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise by humankind! Digging Deeper Roughly a year before the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened to plunge the world into a nuclear world war in which both sides possessed large arsenals of weapons of annihilation, the Soviets showed off their nuclear potential by testing the “Tsar Bomb”. The bomb weighed 27,000 kilograms (60,000 lb) and was 8…
