Browsing: Crime

A Brief History On February 14, 2019, yet another of the many Valentine’s Day massacres took place, this time in India, leaving 41 people dead and another 35 people wounded.  The attack was a suicide bombing of an Indian security forces convoy in the disputed region of Kashmir (more exactly, the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, at the village of Lethpora).   (See our other Valentine’s Day related articles.) Digging Deeper The Kashmir region, on the border of India and Pakistan, is a disputed area that the 2 countries have fought over ever since the division of India into sovereign…

A Brief History On February 11, 2006, the sitting Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, accidentally shot his hunting buddy, Harry Whittington, while on a managed Quail hunt.  Although the birdshot loaded in Cheney’s shotgun is not particularly lethal to humans except at extremely close range, Whittington was grievously wounded when one of the tiny lead pellets went all the way to his heart, nearly killing him.  This shocking incident is but one of many accidental shootings that have happened over the years, sometimes embarrassing and sometimes deadly.  Today we look at a few of the accidental shootings…

A Brief History On February 9, 1941, during World War II, a giant naval artillery shell dropped on the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy (usually just called The Genoa Cathedral) failed to explode, sparing the church from destruction.  Fired by the British battleship HMS Malaya, the 15 inch armor piercing projectile was mistakenly fired at the wrong target, and incredibly, the shell remains in place to this day!  Today we take a look at some instances when a bomb or other explosive failed to either detonate at all or detonate without achieving its intended purpose of destruction.  As…

A Brief History On February 4, 2020, we have had a couple days to digest the array of highly expensive television ads pertaining to Super Bowl LIV (played and aired on February 2, 2020).  Among those television commercials were a few in particular that really seem out of place with a sporting event geared toward entertainment.  We take a look at these ill-considered ads…  (Note:  If you are wondering what sort of Super Bowl ads we actually approve of, think about Dachshunds wearing hot dog outfits running toward Ketchup and Mustard and Relish.  Or cute horse and dog Budweiser commercials. …

A Brief History On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI of France was convicted of treason and taken to the guillotine where he was promptly beheaded, just one of the many instances of famous beheadings in a long history of human violence, both intentional and accidental, both by the state as an execution or by criminal action, and even by our animal “friends.”  Sometimes, people are even decapitated posthumously for some sort of extra emphasis. Today we list 10 of these cases of human decapitation, both famous and infamous.  Execution by beheading has been a long historical means of capital…