A Brief History On January 3, 1944, the top American air combat ace, Pappy Boyington, was shot down. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, later made famous for his exploits leading “The Black Sheep” squadron flying his F4U Corsair against the Japanese in the Pacific theater in World War II. Commanding fighter squadron VMF 214, Pappy and his “Black Sheep” were known for their penchant for getting rowdy and partying with a purpose, hence their appellation. The Corsair fighter plane they flew was vastly superior in many ways to their main opponent, the A6M Zero flown by…
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A Brief History Is December 26th the Most Wacked Date in History? So many disasters occurred we can not even include them all! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find our cracked odyssey starting in 1846 in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the Donner Party, close to death from starvation and freezing, resorts to cannibalism to survive! At least they apparently waited for their food to die on its own and did not murder each other. In 1862, the U.S. conducted its largest mass hanging ever, when 38 Native Americans are hanged from a single scaffold! Incredibly, it could have been worse! …
A Brief History On December 25, 1826, cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point cracked the annals of history with an Eggnog Riot! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the long gray line of cadets leading their disciplined life of study in a controlled environment with distractions like alcoholic beverages prohibited. Fighting, gambling, cursing, all the things young men pursue with gusto at other colleges were forbidden there, even back then. Boys being boys, soldiers being soldiers, the cadets were upset to be strictly limited to non-alcoholic eggnog for their Christmas party, and of course they decided…
A Brief History Today, we celebrate our 100th post by going back to December 16, 1838 when the Ncome River in South Africa became the Blood River at what is known as The Battle of Blood River where the river ran red with blood! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the Boers, colonists of Dutch extraction, trying to settle land long owned by the Zulu Kingdom in what is now South Africa. The Zulu people were tall and physically imposing, living in large numbers with a warrior culture among their men and boys, and led by King Dingane. The Boers,…
A Brief History On December 13, 1937, the blood-lust of a number of Japanese soldiers reached unprecedented proportions when they massacred over 250,000 Chinese in Nanking! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Japan waging a war against their huge but militarily weak neighbor, China, during the lead up to World War II. Resentful of western spheres of influence in China and western colonies throughout Asia, Japan was ready for their own piece of the pie. In their arrogance, they considered themselves the master race and as such deserved to rule all of Asia. This ethnocentric and nationalistic feeling set the…
