Browsing: Society

A Brief History On March 1, 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin suffered an alleged stroke that led to his death on March 5, 1953 at the age of 74.  Although the official reason the brutal dictator died was a common medical malady, high blood pressure leading to a cerebral hemorrhage complicated by a stomach hemorrhage as well, speculation that he may have been murdered persists to this day.  (You may note that there are various spellings of Stalin’s name, the one we have used is the Anglicized version.) Digging Deeper Born Ioseb Jughashvilli in Gori, Georgia of the Russian Empire…

A Brief History On February 27, 1902, a British firing squad carried out the execution of convicted war criminal, Australian Lt. Harry “Breaker” Morant.  A rare thing indeed for the British Army to prosecute one of their own for war crimes in those days, Morant and fellow soldier Lt. Peter Handcock stood accused of the murders of several South African (Boer) prisoners of war and civilians. Digging Deeper The Second Boer War between the British and Dutch settlers of South Africa (Boers) started in October of 1899 and was near its end when Morant and Handcock were tried and executed. …

A Brief History On February 26, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, aka Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, escaped from his forced exile on the island of Elba and made his way back to France, seeking to regain his throne. Digging Deeper Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Corsica, had parlayed his spectacular military successes during and immediately after the French Revolution to becoming a General by the age of 24, and seizing the opportunity to mount a coup and take virtual control of France in 1799.  Never bashful, Napoleon crowned himself L’ Empereur in 1804 and led his Empire in a series of…

A Brief History On February 24, 1942, the government passed a law under the “War Measures Act” allowing the government to relocate and intern citizens of Japanese origin.  The government that enacted this law was the Canadian federal government!  The sorry history of the United States treating its own Japanese citizens in such a hysterical and racist manner is far more well documented and familiar to Americans, and little attention is paid to the fact our genial neighbors to the North did the same thing. Digging Deeper On February 24, 1983, the United States Congress Special Commission passed a resolution…

A Brief History On February 23, 2017, news outlets were awash with stories and video of an incident that took place Tuesday, February 21, 2017 in Anaheim, California (home of Disneyland).  An off duty Los Angeles police officer residing in Anaheim had been having trouble with local youngsters (teens) trespassing in his yard on their way to and from school, when a confrontation broke out when the officer yelled at the kids and the kids, one in particular, made the mistake of mouthing off back at the officer. Digging Deeper Normally it is not against the law to be disrespectful,…