A Brief History On February 15, 1862, Confederate States of America army forces under the command of Brigadier General John B. Floyd launched a surprise attack from the besieged Fort Donelson in Western Tennessee in an effort to break out from the Union encirclement of the fort. The besieging force, the US Army of the Tennessee under the command of Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, prevented the Confederate attempt to break out their besieged forces and in turn forced a surrender of the fort, taking over 12,000 Rebels prisoner. With the War going badly for the Union, President Lincoln and…
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A Brief History On February 1, 1998, Lillian E. Fishburne became the first African American woman promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (2 stars) in the United States Navy. In keeping with the spirit of Black History Month (every February) and expanding on our previous articles celebrating African American achievements, we take this opportunity to cite even more impressive achievements by African Americans, not just “firsts,” but other great accomplishments as well. (And see our recent article dated January 18, 2021), “Historic African American Firsts”) Who would you add to this list? Digging Deeper Lillian E. Fishburne, 1st African…
A Brief History On December 28, 1999, Western actor/action hero Clayton Moore died. If you are not familiar with this star of the small and large screen, he played The Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1957 on television and starred in 2 related big screen movies about the same character. Even if you never saw the Clayton Moore versions of the Lone Ranger, you are probably familiar with “The William Tell Overture” by Rossini, the theme music played for Moore’s Lone Ranger character. In the Covid-19 plagued year of 2020, we have lost another host of notable people, both to…
A Brief History On November 30, 1718, while manning a front line trench in a battle in Norway, the King of Sweden, Charles XII, was killed by either a musket ball or a grape shot ball right through his head. Despite the horrific wound, he immediately grasped his head at the entrance wound with his left hand, leaving his glove soaked in blood. Not only are we not sure if the fatal shot came from a musket or a cannon, but we are also left with various conspiracy theories that the King may have been accidentally or purposely shot by…
A Brief History On October 5, 1930, British Airship R101 crashed in France, killing 48 of the 54 people on board the giant airship. At the time, the R101 was the largest airship ever, and was not matched or exceeded until the ill-fated Hindenburg was launched 7 years later. Like the RMS Titanic before her, the R101 was not only the biggest of its kind, it also went down on its maiden flight! Filled with highly flammable Hydrogen gas, both the R101 and the Hindenburg were basically disasters waiting to happen. (See some of our other articles about aircraft and…