Browsing: Society

A Brief History On October 11, 1910, with aviation still in its infancy, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt took a flight in a Wright Brothers airplane piloted by Archibald Hoxsey, a former auto mechanic from Illinois.  The flight, which took place near St. Louis, Missouri, was the first time an American President had ever flown in an airplane, starting a long tradition of US Presidents flying to vacations, international meetings, campaign events, and whatever other reason the Executive needs to travel. Digging Deeper Oddly enough, Roosevelt’s flight was not the first ever by a national head of state, as the Tsar…

A Brief History On October 10, 1933, a United Airlines Boeing 247 airliner was blown out of the sky over Chesterton, Indiana, the first known instance of an airliner being deliberately taken down by a bomb.  On this deadly flight, only 7 people died, the 3 crew members and the 4 passengers.  (Not a misprint, there were only 4 passengers on the then state of the art twin engine airliner!)  Apparently, terrorists and assassins have also embraced the idea of blowing up airliners to kill their target person or persons or to make their point, because in the years since…

A Brief History In 2018, President Donald Trump of the United States of America (U.S.) began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are “unfair trade practices.”  Waging a trade war can bring a nation’s economy to its proverbial knees. In the case of the current trade war between China and the United States, the American farmer has received a tremendous blow, as the once wide open Chinese market has closed because of the imposition of costly tariffs. Although not as well-publicized, another American industry has taken…

A Brief History On October 8, 1480, Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, stood up to the Tatars led by Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde, the successor to the “Golden Horde,” in an epic stand known as the “Great Stand on the Ugra River,” one of the high points of Russian military history.  This great battle occurred before Russia was a unified country or group of countries led by a single monarch which came to be known as the Czar or Tsar, a Russian adaptation of the Roman title “Caesar.”  (Note: The Germans also appropriated the title of Caesar…

A Brief History In March 2014, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision in U.S. v. Quality Stores, Inc. by holding that severance packages are taxable wages for FICA purposes.  You probably wonder, “What is FICA tax and does it affect my pay?”  After all, many pay stubs have a box labeled “FICA.” To give a FICA definition: This “umbrella” program encompasses Social Security, Medicare, and certain other federal programs.  Do you want to understand the details of your paystub? What is FICA after all?  Learn what FICA stands for and what it is for now in the paragraphs…