Browsing: Society

A Brief History On November 7, 1933, Fiorello La Guardia was first elected Mayor of the City of New York, an office he would hold until December 31, 1945.  As any mayor of New York City is automatically well known to all of America, so was La Guardia, but in his case perhaps a lot more famous than usual.  Heck, a major airport is named after him!  Also on November 7 (1967 this time), Carl Stokes of Cleveland became the first African American man elected as mayor of a major American city.  Since it is way too hard for our…

A Brief History On November 5, 2017, with President Donald J. Trump under fire from seemingly all sides (sometimes including us!), we take this opportunity to congratulate him on setting a fine example to the youth of America by neither smoking nor drinking alcohol.  Nor does he use illegal drugs.  Our previous President, Barack Obama, was criticized for being a smoker, a terrible example for impressionable youngsters that could conceivably chose to smoke with the excuse that, “Hey, the President does!” Digging Deeper Yes, Barack Hussein Obama smoked, although he tried to keep it out of public view and promised…

A Brief History On November 2, 2017, we answer reader requests to tell them about the Russian equivalent of the American military headquarters building known as “The Pentagon.”  In just a few words, the Russian equivalent of our Pentagon is known as The Main Building of the Ministry of Defense. (Note: This building is NOT to be confused with the Kremlin.  The Kremlin is an entirely different structure, consisting of fortified government buildings surrounded by a wall that is more akin to our White House than it is to our Pentagon.) Digging Deeper Like the American Pentagon, the Russians (then the Soviet…

A Brief History On October 31, 1941, the United States Navy destroyer, USS Reuben James was sunk by a German U-boat with torpedoes, the first US Navy ship sunk in the European Theater of Operations during World War II, and over a month before the US was even in the war.  Today we will tell you a little about the namesake of the fateful ship, and about 10 ships well known for having songs about them.  (Apologies to “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island” and the SS Minnow!) Digging Deeper 1. USS Reuben James. The ship also known as DD-245 was assigned…

A Brief History On October 29, 1955, the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk struck a mine in Sevastopol Harbor and sank, taking the lives of 608 crewmen.  Even when we think a war is over, the terrible price cannot yet be calculated, because wars have ways of continuing to kill past the date History claims ended the war.  Here we list 8 of those sad ways wars continue to kill people beyond what seems to be their time frame. Digging Deeper 1. Anti-ship mines. As noted above, the former Italian battleship, Giulio Cesare, renamed by the Soviet Union the Novorossiysk after the USSR…