A Brief History On June 16, 1811, the remaining crew of an American armed fur trading ship purposely blew the ship up after it had been overrun by Native Americans near Vancouver Island. Digging Deeper The wilds of Western North America were dangerous in 1811, and the Tonquin, a 3 masted ship about 94 feet long was armed with 22 guns. Owned by fur tycoon, John Jacob Astor, Tonquin had been in the Pacific seeking to trade with Native Americans for furs. After establishing Fort Astoria in Oregon, Tonquin sailed for Vancouver Island where a dispute with Tla-o-qui-aht people resulted…
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A Brief History On June 11, 980, Vladimir the Great was proclaimed the ruler of all Kievan Rus’, having consolidated an empire consisting of the lands from what is now Ukraine in the East to the Baltic Sea in the West, the White Sea in the North, and to the Black Sea in the South. Digging Deeper Called the Kievan Realm, the people comprising this vast country included what are now Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Nordic, and Finnic people along with other Slavic people. As the name implies, the capital of these people was located in Kyiv. Vladimir, bearing the titles…
A Brief History On June 7, 1938, the government of Nationalist China, at war with the Japanese invaders in the Second Sino-Japanese War, destroyed the embankments of the Yellow River, creating a massive flood in order to halt the advance of the Japanese Army. Digging Deeper The event called “The 1938 Yellow River Flood” was part of a war strategy of “scorched earth” policy, leaving little or nothing for the invaders to use in their conquest. Described as the “largest act of environmental warfare in history,” the resulting flood killed between 500,000 and 900,000 Chinese civilians and created about 3…
A Brief History On May 27, 1996, President Boris Yeltsin of Russia met with Chechen rebels to negotiate a cease fire in what is known as The First Chechen War. The Chechen Republic is an almost autonomous region within the Russian Federation, which fought a war for independence from December of 1994 to August of 1996. Digging Deeper The Chechen people lost as many as 14,000 fighters killed in the war, and another 80,000 to 100,000 civilians slain. The Russians lost about 3,000 to 5,000 killed. A second Chechen War was fought from 1999 to 2009. Chechnya is part of…
A Brief History On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a bold announcement to Congress that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Kennedy’s bold plan was later proven to be true, as the successful Apollo 11 moon landing took place in 1969. What may surprise you, is that at the time of Kennedy’s announcement, 58% of Americans opposed the idea! Digging Deeper Some other bold presidential plans, promises, and pronouncements have included: 1928: Presidential Candidate Herbert…