A Brief History On December 19, 1974, Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as Vice President of the United States, a job he was not elected to, to serve under President Gerald Ford, another guy not elected to the office he held, or even to the vice presidency before that! Digging Deeper This travesty of the so-called democracy in the United State was a result of Richard Nixon’s and Spiro Agnew’s malfeasances in office as the previous President and Vice President. Agnew was drummed out of office when he was convicted of fraud, and Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford,…
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A Brief History On December 16, 1938, world famous dictator and villain Adolf Hitler directed his Nazi German Empire (Reich) to issue a new medal, one only for mothers of German ethnicity living within Germany or later within other areas incorporated into the Reich. Digging Deeper In order to qualify for the award, the mother had to have given birth to at least 4 children and to have exhibited probity and exemplary behavior. (Probity is having a strong sense of morality, honesty and decency.) The medal was known as the Cross of Honour of the German Mother (Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter in German)…
A Brief History On December 15, 1973, with a vote of 13-0, the American Psychiatric Association agreed to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders. Obviously, prior to this, the psychiatric world of medicine had considered homosexuality a mental problem, and this ruling was a major step in the social definition of sexual orientation. Digging Deeper Other questions remain unanswered though; at least consensuses have not yet been reached in their regard. For example, is homosexuality something a person is born with, or is it a learned behavior brought about by a person’s life experiences? Is homosexuality perhaps a choice, something that…
A Brief History On December 14, 2012, in Chenpeng Village of Henan Province, Chinese citizen Min Yongjun stabbed an 85-years-old lady in her own home with her own knife and then took the knife to the primary school next door and began stabbing children aged 6 to 11. Digging Deeper Apparently China’s emergence as a world economic and industrial power has caused changes in society that have unsettled many of its citizens, and for the past few years, there have been several such attacks on school children as a result. In them meantime, security guards are posted at all Chinese schools. Although…
A Brief History On December 12, 1941, American forces were still reeling from the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor when Philippine-American pilot Jesus Villamor led a flight of Boeing P-26 “Peashooter” fighter planes against superior Japanese aircraft that were raiding Batanga Airfield. Digging Deeper Superb Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter planes were escorting G3M Nell bombers. The Philippine-American force had only a handful of greatly outclassed P-26s. Despite the odds, Villamor managed to shoot down 2 Zeros while his men shot down an additional Zero and a Nell, an incredible feat considering the differences in the quality of airplanes involved. The…
