Browsing: September 3

A Brief History On September 3, 1838, Frederick Douglass, an African American slave in Maryland, finally made good on an escape attempt, using trains, ferry boats, and steam boats to find his way to Pennsylvania, a “free” state.  Douglass became famous as a spokesman for the abolition of slavery and when slaves were freed in the United States, he became a spokesman and author for African American rights.  The escape engineered by Douglass and a free Black woman he had become friends with was not a spur of the moment running away, but a carefully orchestrated operation.  Here we list…

A Brief History On September 3, 2004, the 3 day long nightmare at Beslan School Number 1 in Beslan, Russia finally came to an end.  The long hostage crisis and eventual shootout and massacre left 385 people dead, nearly 10 times more than the second deadliest school massacre in history!  (Not counting wartime activities.) Digging Deeper The horrible event was engineered by Islamic separatists from Chechnya and Ingushetia, 32 terrorist by government accounts, but the actual number of terrorists is debatable.  Over 1100 hostages were taken, almost ¾ children under 18 years old.  The terrorists were from the Chechnyan based…

A Brief History On September 3, 1941, the first experiments using an insecticide which had been adapted to kill people were conducted at the Auschwitz concentration camp.  Soviet prisoners of war were gassed to death with a cyanide-based insecticide in a dress rehearsal for the mass extermination of Jews and others known as the Holocaust. Digging Deeper Zyklon B was a product made by the giant German chemical company IG Farben.  Developed from an earlier version known as Zyklon A, it was originally intended to be used as an insecticide and delousing agent.  In its insecticide form, it had a special odorant added for safety reasons so that the smell…

A Brief History On September 3, 1783, the treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War was signed in Paris, France, thus becoming known as the Treaty of Paris.  Paris is often referred to as “The City of Light,” and many other cities have notable nicknames as well.  Here 10 are listed.  (This list is American-centric because there seem to be more nicknamed cities in the U.S. than in other parts of the world.) Digging Deeper 10. Hershey, Pennsylvania, “Chocolate City” People love chocolate, so Hershey must be one of the most beloved cities in the U.S.  The motto of the city is “The Sweetest Place…