A Brief History On December 25, 2009, one of the most bizarre terrorist plots to destroy an airliner and its passengers failed when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was unable to get his bomb hidden in his underwear to explode. Digging Deeper The 23 year old Nigerian man was educated at the University College in London, England and had earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 2008. He attempted to further his education with classes toward a Master’s degree at Wollongong University in Dubai. Unfortunately, this son of one of the richest men in Nigeria squandered his education by becoming a radicalized…
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A Brief History On December 24, 1942, French Patriots got their Christmas wish when Nazi collaborator and opportunist Admiral Francois Darlan was murdered by 20 year old French Monarchist, Fernand de la Chapelle. Digging Deeper A career military man from a naval family, Darlan graduated from the French naval academy and served in the artillery during World War I. A successful naval career followed culminating with Darlan being promoted to Amiral de la Flotte, a special rank just for him, in 1939. When war with Germany broke out in 1939 and the Germans invaded France in 1940, Darlan was overly…
A Brief History On December 23, 962, Christian forces under Byzantine commander Nikephoros II Phokas stormed into the city of Aleppo in the Levant, earning the future Byzantine Emperor the title “Pale Death of the Saracens.” Digging Deeper The Byzantine Empire, headquartered in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) was basically the Eastern half of the Roman Empire and lasted until it was replaced by the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1453. Nikephoros sacked Aleppo (currently the largest city in Syria and now wracked by a horrible civil war resulting in mass destruction and death in the city). Nikephoros took for himself 1400…
A Brief History On December 19, 2016, another part of our democratic process will take place when the 538 electors of the Electoral College vote in the official US Presidential election of 2016. All those millions of individual votes could either be confirmed or thrown out with the trash, depending on how the electors vote. Digging Deeper With a mandatory majority of 270 votes needed to be elected President, if no candidate gets that many electors to vote for him/her the vote would be remanded to the House of Representatives, who would then choose our next president. Who are these…
A Brief History On December 19,1961, the armed forces of India completed Operation Vijay, a land, sea and air assault against the Portuguese enclaves on Indian soil in the Goa region. The mini-war only lasted 2 days, but it ended 451 years of Portuguese colonialism in India. Digging Deeper Portugal had grabbed a piece of India during the age of exploration when European colonial powers were conducting land grabs all over the world. Portugal had established bases on the Indian sub-continent in the area of Goa and nearby regions, a modest holding by colonial standards, and Goa today is India’s…