Browsing: September

A Brief History On September 29, 1989, American singer-songwriter and pianist Billy Joel released his song titled “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. On August 26, 1994, American satirical crime Natural Born Killers film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Years later, JibJab set their 2007 year in review song to “We Didn’t Start the Fire”’s tune. This article lists historical items referred to in “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (1989), Natural Born Killers (1994), and “In 2007”. Digging Deeper In 1949, Harry Truman (1884-1972) was inaugurated as U.S. president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn…

A Brief History On September 30, 1927, the greatest slugger of all time in Baseball History on the greatest team of all time in Baseball History hit his record breaking 60th home run of the season, a record that would stand until broken by Roger Maris of the same New York Yankees in 1961. Digging Deeper George Herman Ruth is arguably the best baseball player of all time, exceptional as a pitcher but probably the greatest hitter ever.  His frequency of home runs (a homer every 11.76 at bats) for a career was the all-time best until Mark McGwire (a…

A Brief History On September 29, 2017, the news media are buzzing about the revelation made public by CNN yesterday that not only did the Russians buy targeted Facebook ads in an attempt to influence the 2016 American presidential election, they also posted disinformation posing as Black Lives Matter sympathizers in an effort to create divisive rifts in US race relations.  Posing as “Blacktivists” the Russians also used Twitter and blogs to destabilize race relations in the US. Digging Deeper The so called “Internet Research Agency,” a front for a Russian government backed “troll farm” posted the ads and false…

A Brief History On September 29, 1940, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) experienced the most astounding incident of airplanes colliding in mid-air, becoming locked together, and then safely landing.  Incredibly, no crew member of either plane was killed! Digging Deeper At the RAAF No. 2 Service Flying Training School at Station Forest Hill, New South Wales, Australia (near Wagga Wagga if that helps), pilots and navigators learned to fly CAC Wirraway (single engine) and Avro Anson (twin engine) airplanes. The Anson was a derivation of the Avro 652 airliner, that served as a general purpose airplane before and during…

A Brief History On September 28, 551 BC, Chinese philosopher Confucius was born, a life started that would have a major influence on billions of people for centuries to come.  Considered by some (Daoists or Taoists) to be a deity, Confucius was a teacher, editor, and politician as well as a philosopher. Digging Deeper First off, the Confucius is a Latinized/Anglicized version of his Chinese name, Kong Fuzi.  He was born near what is now Qufu, China, and his father died while Kong was still a child.  Kong’s mother also died fairly young, and Kong was married at the age…