Browsing: Military

A Brief History On July 1, 1863, the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania began, perhaps the most important battle of the US Civil War.  Many historians have considered it the battle that the war hinged on, especially as it was the “high water mark” of the Confederate invasion of the North.  We list here some of the most important, most critical battles in our nation’s history, battles that the very existence of the country depended on.  Since the only wars that our existence hinged on were the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II, by our definition only those…

A Brief History On June 28, 1950, the South Korean government, democratically elected allies of the United States and other Western allies, committed a massacre of suspected communist sympathizers in what is known as The Bodo League Massacre.  Somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people are believed to have been executed, including girls as young as 12 or 13.  Sometimes the so called “good guys” do things that are not so good.  Any side is quick to point out the atrocities committed by the other side, but unlikely to acknowledge their own indiscretions.  Here, for a change, we list 10 instances when…

A Brief History On June 28, 1987, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Air Force became the first military force in history to purposely target civilians with chemical weapons when they attacked the town of Sardasht, Iran with “mustard” gas. Digging Deeper Iraq was at war with Iran at the time, a particularly nasty affair.  Additionally, the people of Sardasht (perhaps 20,000) were Kurds, an ethnic group that also lives in Iraq and Turkey and has been clamoring for an independent country of their own.  Thus, the ruthless regime of Saddam Hussein could kill 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak, by…

A Brief History On June 25, 1923, Lt. John Richter and Capt. Lowell Smith of the US Army performed the first aerial refueling of an airplane in flight in their DH-4B.  Here we list 10 groundbreaking (pun intended) aviation firsts, not necessarily the most important, but hopefully interesting ones.   Digging Deeper 10. Sophie Blanchard, 1st Woman Aviation Fatality, 1819. Putting on an exhibition at the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, Blanchard was flying a Balloon and shooting fireworks, which predictably ignited the gas (hydrogen) in the balloon causing it to crash, killing Sophie.  Blanchard was also the first woman balloonist and…

A Brief History On June 22, 1893, the British battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally collided with the British battleship HMS Victoria off the coast of Lebanon. Digging Deeper Victoria was the flagship of the British Mediterranean fleet, the most powerful fleet in that sea and as such carried Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon. These 2 ships were 2 of the most powerful ships in the world, launched in 1885 and 1887 respectively.  They were engaged in maneuvers and using the tactics of using an absolute minimum amount of signaling between ships.  Remember, back then there was no radio, so ships used signal flags, semaphore or blinking…