Browsing: Military

A Brief History On November 9, 1918, in the face of catastrophic defeat after four years of debilitating war, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated his throne and went into exile in the Netherlands.  Throughout history, leaders have been forced by political or personal circumstances to give up power and leave office, sometimes of their own free will and other times because of outside influence.  Here we list 10 of those leaders that left their position of leadership before their time was due.  (Resigning to assume a higher post does not count.) Digging Deeper 1. Kaiser Wilhelm, Germany, 1918. Kaiser Bill…

A Brief History On November 2, 2017, we answer reader requests to tell them about the Russian equivalent of the American military headquarters building known as “The Pentagon.”  In just a few words, the Russian equivalent of our Pentagon is known as The Main Building of the Ministry of Defense. (Note: This building is NOT to be confused with the Kremlin.  The Kremlin is an entirely different structure, consisting of fortified government buildings surrounded by a wall that is more akin to our White House than it is to our Pentagon.) Digging Deeper Like the American Pentagon, the Russians (then the Soviet…

A Brief History On October 31, 1941, the United States Navy destroyer, USS Reuben James was sunk by a German U-boat with torpedoes, the first US Navy ship sunk in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, and over a month before the US was even in the war.  Today we will tell you a little about the namesake of the fateful ship, and about 10 ships well known for having songs about them.  (Apologies to “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island” and the SS Minnow!) Digging Deeper 1. USS Reuben James. The ship also known as DD-245 was assigned…

A Brief History On October 29, 1955, the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk struck a mine in Sevastopol Harbor and sank, taking the lives of 608 crewmen.  Even when we think a war is over, the terrible price cannot yet be calculated, because wars have ways of continuing to kill past the date History claims ended the war.  Here we list 8 of those sad ways wars continue to kill people beyond what seems to be their time frame. Digging Deeper 1. Anti-ship mines. As noted above, the former Italian battleship, Giulio Cesare, renamed by the Soviet Union the Novorossiysk after the USSR…

A Brief History On October 27, 2017, tensions between the United States and North Korea put a cloud of possible nuclear conflict facing the American people.  Meanwhile, 2017 has been a year of unprecedented major wildfires, hurricanes, and who knows what the last couple months of the year can bring?  The potential for natural or man-made disaster that results in a time of no police, no government services, no utilities, no food, no water, and no civil behavior by fellow survivors is higher than at any time since the Cold War.  As we have seen in Louisiana in the aftermath…