Browsing: September 24

A Brief History On September 24, 787, church leaders of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church met at the Church of Hagia Sophia in Iznik, province of Nicaea ( province of Bursa in modern Turkey) in a conference known as the Second Council of Nicaea.  The object of the Council was to resolve issues of difference between the beliefs and teaching of both branches of Christianity, notably, to venerate or not to venerate icons. (Some terminology:  iconolater = one who venerates icons/holy images; iconoclast = one who prohibits against the veneration of icons; iconoclasm = the prohibition against…

A Brief History On September 24, 1272, Prince Edward of England, leader of the Ninth Crusade, left Acre (Syria) for Sicily to recover from wounds. There he heard of the death of his son and later the death of his father. The evacuation of Edward marked the end of the Ninth Crusade, the last of the Medieval religious Crusades (though there is sometimes referenced a Tenth Crusade that is not really related to what we think of as the Historical Crusades). Digging Deeper Edward’s wounds were caused by an assassin wielding a poisoned dagger. Though Edward was able to kill…

A Brief History On September 24, 2017, numerous NFL football players took a knee rather than stand for the playing of the National Anthem at this week’s football games.  A practice started last year by quarterback (now unemployed) Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49’rs that spread intermittently throughout the league, had largely died down, with players expressing their displeasure with the state of affairs in the United States by the less threatening action of joining arm in arm while the National Anthem is played and or sung before games. Digging Deeper Today, not only did 21 Cleveland Browns players…

A Brief History On September 24, 1960, the naval world entered a new phase in history when the nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN- 65) was first launched.  The first aircraft carrier with nuclear power, the Big E sported 8 nuclear reactors heating steam in 4 turbine engines, putting out an astounding 280,000 horsepower. Digging Deeper The Enterprise had speed as all carriers must to facilitate aircraft launching and quickly getting to where they are needed, but the most remarkable feature of those mighty atomic engines was the fact that the ship could travel non-stop for 20 to 25…

A Brief History On September 24, 2009, the first use of a long range acoustic device (LRAD) for crowd control in the United States took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the G-20 summit that was being held there.  The first use had been in Georgia (the country, not the state) in 2007.  Digging Deeper Although it is also known as a sound cannon, its manufacturer, the LRAD Corporation, does not call it a weapon but rather a “directed sound communications system.”  It is a device that looks like a loudspeaker, however instead of projecting beautiful music, it generates deterring sounds that are pain inducing, and it can send those sounds…