Browsing: October

A Brief History On October 8, 1480, Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, stood up to the Tatars led by Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, the successor to the “Golden Horde,” in an epic stand known as the “Great Stand on the Ugra River,” one of the high points of Russian military history.  This great battle occurred before Russia was a unified country or group of countries led by a single monarch which came to be known as the Czar or Tsar, a Russian adaptation of the Roman title “Caesar.”  (Note: The Germans also appropriated the title of Caesar…

A Brief History On October 3, 1952, (October 2 local date), the British became the third country to boast the possession of atomic weapons when Operation Hurricane resulted in a successful nuclear blast in the Monte Bello Islands of Western Australia.  The United States had first achieved nuclear fission in bomb form on July 16, 1945, in a famous/infamous blast called the Trinity test in the desert of New Mexico, the culmination of a joint Allied effort to design and field an atomic bomb, an effort that the United Kingdom had contributed to.  So why was the UK not included…

A Brief History On October 4, 2019, the latest and perhaps greatest of the DC Comics related movies will be released to an eager and avid public.  Joker is projected to be a “stand alone” movie, while centered on the Batman/Gotham City mythology it is not tied into the other DC Cinematic Universe films that have already been produced and are to be produced.  We previewed this film on October 1, 2019, and found it to be every bit as dark, depressing, frightening, and engrossing as we had anticipated.  What a movie!  Despite idiotic and pervasive fears about the film…

A Brief History On October 1, 1994, the Pacific island nation of Palau entered an agreement with the United States called “a Compact of Free Association with the United States,” maintaining its independence while reaping some of the territorial benefits of being part of the “American Empire.”  While the average American is probably not familiar with the most populous of the 340 islands that make up the country, and probably never heard of the capital city of Ngerulmud, those familiar with the US vs. Japan Pacific War during World War II may be familiar with the island of Peleliu, the…

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…