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…
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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…
A Brief History On this date, December 12, 1098, in what is now Syria, Crusaders massacred 20,000 Muslims and ate some of them! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find European Christians launching what is now known as the First Crusade, an attempt to take back lands overrun by the sweeping Muslim hordes. Besieging a city at Ma’arra (various spellings) the Crusaders were at the walls on December 12, 1098 when the Muslims inside finally surrendered after about a month of resistance. Promises of the safety of residents to the contrary, the Crusaders began the systematic slaughter of the population. Frustrated…
A Brief History On this date, December 11, 1981, during a time of renewed tension in the Cold War, the United States was eager to help “friendly” countries resist communist rebellions and the USSR was doing all they could to “convert” non-communist countries to Marxism. With this backdrop, the U.S. had been training anti-insurgency forces in El Salvador and helped form the first such unit there. Unfortunately, this day saw a bloody and wrongly applied use of that force when the village of El Mozote and the area suffered the massacre of abut 900 innocent people. Digging Deeper Digging deeper,…