Browsing: Society

A Brief History On May 12, 1932, the lifeless body of Charles Lindbergh Jr. was found, about 6 weeks after he had been kidnapped from his crib. The kidnapping and murder of the child of “Lucky Lindy,” the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop was called at the time “The Crime of The Century.” (Remember, at that time Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls had not yet been made!) History has been marked by abductions of famous people and by famous abductions of people. Here we list 10 of the most notable kidnappings. Digging Deeper 10. Adolf…

A Brief History On May 11, 1862, Confederate sailors sunk their own ship, the CSS Virginia, in the James River outside of Norfolk, Virginia to avoid capture by Union troops.  Ships have been intentionally sunk by their own crews for a variety of reasons, usually to avoid capture by the enemy, sometimes after battle damage and sometimes while the ships were perfectly sound. At times, even whole fleets were scuttled.  German U-boats would be scuttled when forced to the surface and unable to continue the fight to avoid capture of sensitive encoding equipment, let alone the boats themselves, a common…

A Brief History On May 11, 1862, the CSA ironclad, CSS Virginia, was scuttled in the James River to avoid capture by Union forces. The Virginia had formerly been the USS Merrimac and had fought the USS Monitor in the first battle of ironclad armored ships.  Over its long and illustrious history, the US Navy has lost a variety of vessels, and here we list some of the most famous of those losses. Digging Deeper 10. Bonhomme Richard, 1779. Starting life as a French merchant ship named Duc de Duras built in 1765, she was given to the fledgling US Navy to fight the…

A Brief History On May 11, 2014, 69 countries and territories celebrate Mother’s Day, including the United States. Digging Deeper Anna Jarvis of West Virginia celebrated the first (modern version) Mother’s Day  in 1908 as a memorial to her mother. Thinking this idea was so brilliant, Jarvis began a campaign to create the Mother’s Day holiday. In 1914 her efforts became successful with the official establishment of the holiday, and many countries began to celebrate the holiday as well. Jarvis always claimed exclusive authorship of the holiday, ignoring previous somewhat similar celebrations in the 1800’s. Jarvis actually went to the…

A Brief History On May 10, 1924, J. Edgar Hoover, only 29 years old, was appointed head of the Bureau of Investigation, the agency that became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He remained in that post until he died in 1972 when he was 77 years old. Digging Deeper Hoover made the FBI famous through high standards of hiring and rigorous training of its agents, and by striving to stay on the cutting edge of scientific crime fighting.  Through the carefully planned use of publicity, he kept the FBI and himself at the front of the public’s attention, and the…