Browsing: Society

A Brief History On May 7, 2004, American inventor and businessman Nicholas Berg, only 26 years old, was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Iraq, a barbaric event made all the worse because the terrorists posted a video of the murder on the internet, to the chagrin of horrified Americans.  The fact that he was Iraq for humanitarian reasons made the murder that much harder to understand. Digging Deeper Nick Berg the inventor of a construction brick he called “Bovl Block” and owner of a construction company, was traveling overseas to teach poor countries how to make his bricks so they…

A Brief History On May 7, 1429, Joan of Arc, The Maid of Orleans, pulled an arrow out of her own shoulder and went back to fighting, leading the final charge that lifted the Siege of Orleans. Some warriors are like that, they get wounded and care more about getting the job done than taking care of themselves. Almost all of US Medal of Honor winners qualify in this way, but we would like to present a variety of special warriors from various times and places. Here we list 10 such brave fighters. Digging Deeper 10. Manfred von Richthofen, 1918.…

A Brief History On May 7, 1999, the United States accidentally killed 3 Chinese embassy employees and wounded 20 more when a NATO jet mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Since explosives have been used in warfare, people have accidentally blown up the wrong target, often killing unintended victims. Here are 10 of these more interesting cases (there are many, many cases indeed).  (Note: While Pope Francis dropped an accidental “F-bomb” in March of 2014, those kind of bombs do not count!) Digging Deeper 10. Iraq Suicide Bomb Training. In February of 2014 it was reported a terrorist…

A Brief History On May 6, 2013, only one year ago today 3 Cleveland women who had been kidnapped got their first taste of freedom in nearly a decade!  One of the women’s first-hand accounts of the experiences arrives in bookstores today! Digging Deeper Ariel Castro born in Puerto Rico in 1960 and ending up in Cleveland where he went to high school and settled down with his own family in the 1980’s. Castro was not an ideal family man and was accused of frequently beating his common-law wife, who by 1996 had had enough and left him, gaining custody…

A Brief History On May 5, 1802, two of Napoleon’s generals entered into a pistol duel to the death over perceived insults between them. Digging Deeper Back in early 1801, the French soldiers that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon’s failed expedition there were trying their best to prevent an English army from pushing them out of the country.  The French commander-in-chief, General Menou, had only gotten the job after the previous commander General Kléber had been stabbed to death by a religious fanatic.  More of an administrator and less of a battlefield commander, Menou was in over his head.…