A Brief History On December 12, 884, the King of West Francia, Carloman II, son of Louis the Stammerer (Louis II), died in a hunting accident. Carloman was only 18 years old at the time, which goes to show you being King is no guarantee of a long happy life. Digging Deeper In the convoluted manner of the time (no convenient DNA tests back then) the succession to the throne was contested in 879 when the Stammering old King died. Carloman and his brother, Louis III, ended up both being elected King despite disputed paternity, and split the throne of…
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A Brief History On December 11, 629, the Prophet of Allah and founder of the Muslim religion, Muhammad, led an army of 10,000 converts to Islam into Mecca and conquered the city with minimal casualties. Digging Deeper As often takes place today when adherents to one religion take over an area previously shared by other faiths, critics of Islam allege that the Muslims destroyed all traces of Arabian, Jewish, and Christian statuary, paintings, and other objects of non-Islamic religious significance, although some accounts claim Muhammad spared depictions of Jesus and Mary. Many modern Muslims dispute these claims altogether, arguing that…
A Brief History On December 10, 1941, Colin Purdie Kelly, Jr. became the first in a long line of American heroes that flew the great Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a pairing of the greatest bomber of World War II and the greatest bomber pilots. Digging Deeper Only 3 days after the catastrophic raid on Pearl Harbor thrust the US into the War, the Philippines were next on the Japanese list of American targets, and Kelly with his bomber and crew were there to face the threat. On a mission to attack Japanese naval forces, Kelly bombed the Japanese cruiser Natori,…
A Brief History On December 7, 1941, the Naval and Air Forces of the Empire of Japan conducted a sneak attack against the US military bases on Oahu, Hawaii, and especially at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, “a date that will live in infamy.” He was certainly right, and it has, perhaps more than any other date on the calendar as far as Americans are concerned. Here we list 10 Dates That Live in American Infamy. Feel free to debate the order or content of the list, and tell us which dates belong and which do…
A Brief History On December 6, 343, the man we have come to know as Santa Claus died at the age of 73 in Myra, part of the Roman Empire in what is now South Western Turkey. Digging Deeper Before you break the bad news to young children, you should know that St. Nicholas of Myra, also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker (now that is a name!) is the real life inspiration for Santa Claus. (Note: Nicholas is an Anglicized version of Nikolaos.) Not only is Nicholas revered as a saint by the Catholic Church, he is also given sainthood…