Browsing: Society

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…

A Brief History On December 7, 1982, the State of Texas executed convicted murderer Charles Brooks, Jr. by lethal injection, the first such execution in US history. Lethal injection would go on to become the preferred method of execution in the US until the 21st Century when serious problems manifested themselves. Digging Deeper Prior to lethal injection, the Federal government and state governments used a variety of methods of execution, from hanging and firing squads to the electric chair and the gas chamber. These methods were all deemed to be “humane,” at least compared to the barbaric methods previously employed…