Browsing: Society

A Brief History On April 22, 2020, the pandemic of the COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2, or better known as “coronavirus,” has claimed another victim, as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, in this case the venerable Urbana University, an Ohio college that was only the second institute of higher learning in Ohio to admit women as students alongside men. Digging Deeper Urbana University, founded in 1850, has been ailing financially for several years, and was acquired by Franklin University in 2014 and operated as a branch of that institution.  The school, located near Columbus, Ohio, in the city of Urbana (Champaign County),…

A Brief History On April 22, 1915, the Imperial German Army used chlorine gas in large quantities for the first time at Ypres, in Belgium, targeting French colonial troops.  Previous use of irritant (tear gasses) substances had previously been attempted by both side with little practical effect.  The shift to gas that could disable and kill people was a tremendous escalation in the chemical war aspect of World War I (1914-1918), then known as “The Great War.”  (Not so “great” if the enemy uses lethal gas against you!) Digging Deeper While people have engaged in warfare for thousands of years,…

A Brief History On April 21, 1802, a band of Wahhabis from Najd in central Saudi Arabia attacked the central Iraqi city of Karbala, with the purpose of punishing those Iraqi Muslims for failing to follow the ultra-conservative religious teachings of Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), a Sunni Muslim scholar who had taught a “renewal” of the Islamic faith apparently at odds with the brand of Islam practiced in Karbala, which was of the Shia variety.  Karbala at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire. Digging Deeper The Wahhabi army numbered around 12,000 soldiers, and easily overwhelmed whatever defense Karbala put…

A Brief History On April 20, 1657, a fleet of 23 British Royal Navy warships sailed boldly into the defended harbor at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, to attack a Spanish treasure fleet anchored there.  Braving fire from the anchored ships and the shore batteries, the British fleet sank 12 of the Spanish ships and captured the other 5, suffering only serious damage to one of their own ships. Digging Deeper The Spanish suffered 300 men killed, while the British lost 48 killed and 120 wounded.  While England of course had warships for many, many years, the Royal Navy…

A Brief History On April 19, 1989, one of those naval oops moments we keep writing about occurred, and this particular one had catastrophic consequences for the history of the battleship.  The Iowa class battleships (Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and New Jersey) produced by the US during World War II were the epitome of the type, combining the most effective combination of firepower, armor protection, speed and endurance of any of the ships of their kind. Digging Deeper The Iowa, lead ship of the greatest class of battleship ever produced, suffered an enormous explosion in the Number 2 turret when the…