Browsing: Society

A Brief History On December 14, 1836, a war between the States ended, but one you may not be familiar with.  The so called Toledo War, also known as the Michigan-Ohio War ended when Michigan chose to give up its claim on the land called The Toledo Strip. Digging Deeper Ohio had already been a state since 1803, and Michigan was eager  to join the union by achieving statehood.  Unfortunately, due to sloppy mapping and a marginal understanding of geography, there was some confusion and dispute as to where the border of Ohio and Michigan was.  On top of that,…

A Brief History On December 13, 1294, Pope Celestine V, also known as Saint Celestine, resigned from the office of Pope of the Roman Catholic Church after only five months as pope.  An ineffective and incompetent pope, Celestine pulled stunts such as appointing several people to the same high position and acting as a puppet for King Charles II of Naples.  The successor to Celestine as Pope, Boniface VIII, imprisoned Celestine and overturned the various decrees Celestine managed to publish.  One of these decrees was the right of a Pope to abdicate, the right under which Celestine quit.  Obviously, both…

A Brief History On December 12, 1985, the US Army experienced one of its worst non-combat tragedies in its history when 236 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division were killed in the crash of Arrow Flight 1285. Digging Deeper The DC-8 carrying the soldiers plus 20 civilians (8 of which were crew members)  was returning the soldiers to the US from duty in Egypt.  The plane had made an interim stop at Gander, Newfoundland and was attempting to take off when it lost speed and stalled, crashing about a half mile past the runway and killing all aboard. The soldiers…

A Brief History On December 10, 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt became the first American to earn a Nobel Prize when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War.  (Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama have also won Nobel Prizes since Roosevelt.) Digging Deeper Roosevelt was no stranger to accomplishing things and is immortalized on Mount Rushmore along with Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.  By no means a namby pamby wimpy pencil pushing politician, Roosevelt, though born into the moneyed class, was a man of the American West and rushed to serve our country…

A Brief History On December 8, 2012, Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Josh Brent was driving drunk at high speed with fellow Cowboy, linebacker Jerry Brown, as a passenger.  Brent lost control of his car when it hit a curb, flipping the car and catching on fire.  Brent recovered from his injuries, but Brown died that same night. Digging Deeper Not only were the 2 men teammates on the Cowboys, but they had also both attended Illinois and were teammates there as well.  Although emotional and devastated by the news, the Cowboys actually won their game against the Bengals the next…