A Brief History On March 7, 1799, French General Napoleon Bonaparte successfully captured the city of Jaffa in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Although considered one of the all-time military geniuses, Bonaparte blundered when he allowed his men to massacre more than 2000 Albanians that had surrendered. Digging Deeper Napoleon then encouraged civilians to leave the city in the hope that these refugees would spread the word of French terror and cause other cities in the area to surrender without a fight. He was wrong! News of the massacre steeled the resolve of the Ottoman defenders and forced…
Browsing: Military
A Brief History On March 6, 1943, the Battle of Fardykambos was fought between the Greek Resistance and the invading Italian Army. The Resistance won the battle, with nearly an entire Italian battalion surrendering. Digging Deeper In the past we have talked about odd named wars and battles, but despite the funny sounding names, these conflicts are not funny. The Greeks suffered 4 dead with another 13 wounded and the Italians lost 565 captured, 96 dead, and 79 wounded. Italy was on a path of conquest, and part of their plan was to seize Greece, which they invaded in 1940. …
A Brief History On February 28, 1959, a Thor-Agena A rocket was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a spy satellite designated Discoverer 1, the first in a spy satellite program of the American military and intelligence network. Digging Deeper Discoverer 1 was intended as the first ever satellite to orbit the Earth via the poles rather than on an equatorial orbit, and was part of the CORONA program. Actually a testbed, Discoverer 1 was not equipped with the camera and film that later satellites of the KH-1 type would carry. Unfortunately, the star-crossed spacecraft failed in…
A Brief History On February 25, 1870, history was made when Hiram Rhodes Revels, an African American man from Mississippi, was sworn in as a US Senator, the first African American member of the US Congress. Digging Deeper Despite being born in North Carolina in 1827, Revels was not born a slave, and later lived in Indiana and Ohio. The son of a Baptist minister, Revels was educated in Quaker seminaries and at Knox College, in Illinois, later being ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Revels served in the US Army during the American Civil War as a chaplain,…
A Brief History On February 24, 1597, the Battle of Santavuori Hill was fought in Finland, the final battle of the Cudgel War. Digging Deeper You may know a cudgel is a thick stick or club used as a weapon, and in an age of firearms and sophisticated steel armor and weapons the cudgel may have seemed out of date. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and the peasants fighting for Finland against the oppressors from Sweden had to make do against their well-armed and well armored foes. Blunt force weapons such as cudgels, maces, and flails…
