Browsing: Military

A Brief History On March 5, 1770, British soldiers opened fire on a group of unarmed American protesters, killing 5 (either 3 or 4 immediately, one dying later), an event referred to as The Boston Massacre, sometimes called the first shots fired in the American Revolutionary War. The first American gunned down was Crispus Attucks, a freeman of African and Native American descent. Digging Deeper Described in contemporary documents as a “mulattoe,” Attucks was of mixed race, definitely of African and Wampanoag descent, possibly with White mixed in. It is not known if he was a runaway slave, or if…

A Brief History On February 24, 1942, an “order in council” was passed by the Canadian government that authorized the internment of all persons of Japanese ancestry in Canada. (On the same day, the United States passed a measure under the “War Powers Act” to also intern Japanese Americans. See our article, “Forced Internment of Japanese During World War II”) The internment order followed a series of other measures taken against Japanese people in Canada, including the seizing of Japanese owned fishing boats, interrogations, curfews and general harassment and discrimination. Incredibly, some of these measures stayed in effect until 1949!…

A Brief History On February 23, 1903, the United States signed a lease with Cuba for a 45 square mile chunk of land on Guantanamo Bay on that island, a lease for $2,000 per year, payable in gold, and lasting in perpetuity (forever). Known by the US military as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, it is the oldest US naval base outside the United States. Used as a coaling station (when ships were powered by coal) and as a general purpose naval base, the station known as “Gitmo” has since 2002 housed a prison for suspected terrorists captured during the War…

A Brief History On September 17, 1978, Battlestar Galactica, an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson, that began the Battlestar Galactica franchise debuted on television.  The Battlestar Galactica, the namesake of the series, is an example of a large, fictional, capital military spacecraft. Frequently called space battleships and space cruisers, these spacefaring warships most often found in science fiction play similar roles to contemporary warships, although real spacecraft are used for military purposes.1 They may fight slow-paced battles across vast distances with long range guided weapons, never attaining visual contact,2 or fast-paced, relatively close range combat with unguided weapons and combat maneuvering.3 Smaller “space fighters” are fictional spacecraft analogous to fighter aircraft. Space fighters…

A Brief History On February 19, 1943, the Battle of Kasserine Pass started, the first major American engagement of ground forces with the Axis forces in the Western Theater of World War II. Unfortunately for the US Army, the performance of the soldiers and their equipment was a major disappointment, perhaps crushingly so, disheartening not only the US higher commanders (General Eisenhower) but also our British allies. General Omar Bradley (later a 5 star General) later said that Kasserine Pass was the worst performance by the US Army in all its history. Digging Deeper After World War II started in…