Browsing: Military

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club used as a weapon, and in an age of firearms and sophisticated steel armor and weapons the cudgel may have seemed out of date.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…

A Brief History On February 23, 1903, Cuba made a deal with the United States to lease 45 square miles of land and sea for a period of time with no expiration, virtually forever! Digging Deeper In 1898, the US and Spain fought a war, including ground and sea combat in Cuba, then a Spanish possession.  The US won the short war, and took possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, while Cuba was freed from Spain and became an independent country. The original rent payment was to be paid in Gold, $2000 per year, but after 1934 the…

A Brief History On February 19, 1954, the Soviet Politburo, the highest policy making organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ordered the Crimean Oblast to the Ukrainian SSR.  The Crimea had previously been part of the Russian SFSR, and numerous cultures, kingdoms, and empires before that. Digging Deeper After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, a referendum of Crimean citizens voted to become an autonomous region within the Ukrainian SSR and in 1992, within an independent Ukraine.  In 1994, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States agreed to the Budapest Memorandum, a treaty that addressed former Soviet…

A Brief History On February 10, 1862, during the American Civil War, the Union fleet won the battle of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, by sinking the Confederate “Mosquito Fleet.”  So, what is a “mosquito fleet?” Digging Deeper Generally speaking, a mosquito fleet is an unofficial nickname for a fleet of small warships or gunboats, in the case of the Confederate mosquito fleet mentioned here, 5 gunboats and a single schooner. Other nations and navies have employed mosquito fleets, ranging from commandeered private yachts used for anti-submarine patrol during the World Wars to converted fishing or utility vessels pressed into military…

A Brief History On February 9, 1907, the city of London was the scene of an epic civil rights march, colloquially known as “The Mud March.”  More correctly known as the “United Procession of Women,” it was at the time the largest demonstration in history for the cause of women’s suffrage.  Today, we name a few others of the most famous or infamous marches. Digging Deeper The Long March, 1934-1935, when Mao Zedong led Chinese communist forces on an epic retreat by foot over the course of a year, walking about 5600 miles on the trek! The Bataan Death March,…