A Brief History On August 28, 489, the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric, defeated the forces under Odoacer, King of Italy, at the Battle of Isonzo, thus opening the route into the heart of Italy. Odoacer had become the first King of Italy in 476, but his downfall was preordained by his feud with the Eastern Roman Emperor, Zeno, who had promised Theodoric the Great (alternately spelled Theoderic) Italy in order to undermine Odoacer. After losing the battle at the Isonzo River, Theodoric defeated Odoacer again only 3 days later at Verona, causing Odoacer to flee to Ravenna. With much…
Browsing: Military
Read More
A Brief History On August 26, 2018, a nation mourns the loss of US Navy veteran John McCain, a prominent US Senator from Arizona and former Presidential candidate who finally succumbed to brain cancer on August 25, 2018, after a courageous fight. As a high profile US politician, McCain became even more famous/infamous when he chose Sarah Palin as his Vice-presidential running mate in 2008. We celebrate John McCain’s life and legacy today by chronicling his fascinating life, a life of incredible highs and lows, triumphs and terrible pain. Digging Deeper Born in the Canal Zone (Panama) to a prominent…
A Brief History On August 21, 1982, elements of the 860 man French contingent of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) arrived in Beirut. A few days later United States Marines followed adding another 850 troops, and the next day 575 Italian troops arrived. The MNF was a US brokered peace keeping force with the intention of saving lives among Lebanese in the wake of the June 1982 invasion of Lebanon by Israel in pursuit of Palestine Liberation Organization fighters. The MNF was assigned the mission of evacuating PLO fighters and Syrian troops from Lebanon so that the Israeli forces…
A Brief History On August 6, 1945, the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing about 70,000 people right away and perhaps a few tens of thousands later from wounds, burns, and radiation. Ever since this first use of a nuclear weapon against living, human targets the specter of possible nuclear war has hung over the world, casting a pall on humanity. Created by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board in 1947, the Doomsday Clock (https://thebulletin.org/2018-doomsday-clock-statement/) was invented as a way to chart the ongoing threat…
A Brief History On August 2, 1916, Austrian saboteurs managed to sink the Italian battleship, Leonardo da Vinci as the great ship lay in Taranto harbor. Was the magazine explosion an accident, or did the Austrians use some sort of novel booby trap to sink the mighty vessel? Either way, World War I, like other wars, saw the imagination of arms designers and military engineers run wild. Previously we have discussed 10 Weird Weapons of World War I, and today we expand our list by another 5 goofy gadgets both sides came up with to pursue victory in this terrible…