Browsing: Society

A Brief History On August 23, 1954, a pleasure cruise around the Mediterranean Sea carrying many of the crowned heads of Europe set sail from Marseille, France, a royalty only trip known as “The Cruise of Kings.” Digging Deeper The cruise was planned by the Greek monarchs, King Paul and Queen Frederica, with the idea that bringing many royals together could result in possible marital matchmaking.  Royalty representing 25 current and former royal families were gathered for the 11-day cruise, but only a single match was generated, that between Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma.  A…

A Brief History On August 19, 2017, over 300,000 Atlantic Salmon being raised offshore in a pen escaped when the pen failed due to a lack of maintenance.  Almost ready for harvest and sale, the Salmon are not native to the Pacific coast and present a danger of being an invasive species that could hurt native populations of Pacific Salmon. Digging Deeper Invasive species present an extreme ecological problem around the world, sometimes introduced on purpose, such as the common Carp, Pigeons, and Starlings, and other times completely by accident due to shipping, such as Zebra and Quagga Mussels, or…

A Brief History On August 16, 1933, antisemitism reared its ugly head in Toronto, Canada, famous for being a nice city.  Known as the “Christie Pits riot” after the playground in which it occurred; the incident was not unique in Toronto. Digging Deeper Toronto was a mostly White, British derived city with Jewish people making up the largest minority.  Previous riots had taken place in 1875 against Catholics and in 1918 against Greek immigrants. Not just anti-Jewish, the Anglo rioters also railed against Italians.  The setting had been a baseball game with a team of Jews and Italians against a…

A Brief History On August 13, 1889, the coin operated pay phone was patented by William Gray of Connecticut. “It’s your dime” was a common phrase meaning “you make the call, you paid for it” and our greatest superhero, Superman, needed phone booths to change into his Superman suit. Not anymore! Digging Deeper Pay phones and phone booths used to be part of the American scene, as recently as the 1980s or the 1990s, but cell phones made them obsolete.  Like the Marlboro Man, other bits of Americana largely disappeared, including: Coin operated kids’ rides outside the front of stores. …

A Brief History On August 11, 2000, Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 from Nevada to Utah experienced one of those horrible moments when the lives of all on board were at stake. Digging Deeper An emotionally upset 19 year old man, possibly fueled by drugs in his system, engaged in an ongoing tirade in the airliner, culminating in his kicking in the cockpit door and attempting to enter the cockpit.  The flight crew pushed the angry young man out of the flight deck and concerned passengers swarmed the out-of-control passenger and subdued him. Unfortunately, the 19-year-old died while other passengers restrained…