A Brief History On February 14, 1400, England’s King Richard II (aka Richard of Bordeaux) died in captivity, most likely starved to death. Ruling England since 1377, Richard had in his last 2 years on the throne (1397-1399) become a bloodthirsty tyrant, ruthlessly killing his enemies. Usurped in 1399 by Henry of Bolingbroke (who became King Henry IV), Richard was imprisoned under harsh conditions until he died at the age of 33, just one more lousy King written off and replaced by another. Digging Deeper As you may infer from my previous articles, I am not a fan of monarchy.…
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A Brief History On February 13, 1633, Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome to stand trial before the Catholic Inquisition for heresy. The main point of the Church was that Galileo espoused the Copernican theory of Heliocentrism, that is, the Sun is the center of the solar system and the Earth orbits the Sun. According to the Church, such an idea was “foolish and absurd… formally heretical.” Forced to recant, Galileo was spared, but lived the remainder of his life under house arrest. Several times throughout History a trial has been described as “The Trial of the Century” or other such…
A Brief History On February 12, 1976, Hollywood actor Sal Mineo, age 37, was murdered in an alley outside his West Hollywood apartment, stabbed in the heart by a pizza deliveryman in the act of a robbery. Mineo became famous as 1 16 year old playing across from James Dean in the 1955 classic film, Rebel Without a Cause. Digging Deeper In Rebel Without a Cause, Mineo played a sensitive teen that idolized the iconic James Dean character, juvenile delinquent Jim Stark. The role put Mineo on the Hollywood map and spurred a following of adoring young girls. Mineo got…
A Brief History On February 11, 1812, Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, was accused of manipulating voting districts in a bizarre, uneven way in order to tailor voting demographics to suit his own political benefit. The resultant agonizingly ridiculously shaped voting districts resembled a dragon or salamander, giving rise to the term we know of today as “gerrymandering” when drawing voting districts. On March 26, 1812, the term “gerrymander” first made it to print in the Boston Globe. Digging Deeper The efforts of Governor Gerry were somewhat successful, and a new form of political chicanery was born. Ever since,…
A Brief History On February 10, 1355, Oxford, England, the site of the ultra-prestigious University of Oxford, was the scene of a considerable riot that cost the lives of 63 student/scholars and at least 30 townsfolk. This so-called St. Scholastica Day Riot started in a tavern and ended when the scholars were finally routed by the townies. (History and Headlines currently has 7 articles about riots and will certainly be adding more.) Digging Deeper The University of Oxford was founded around 1096, with no specific founding date. It is the oldest university or college in the English-speaking world and is…