A Brief History On August 25, 1914, during the opening stages of World War I German soldiers burned the Library of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, destroying a treasure of ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance works. Over 300,000 books were burned, many of them irreplaceable volumes now lost forever. Thousands of manuscripts of various types were burned, along with 1000 Incunabula (printed works made before 1501, the earliest works printed by machine). A specific work that was lost was the Easter Island Rongorongo Text E, a wooden tablet etched with glyphs made by Easter Island natives before invasion by…
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A Brief History On August 24, 2010, 72 bodies of illegal immigrants were found in a mass grave by Mexican military units that had just ended a shootout with the dreaded drug and crime cartel, Los Zetas. They had been blindfolded and handcuffed before being shot in the back of the head. Perhaps the most pervasive of the Mexican criminal gangs and drug-trafficking cartels, Los Zetas are known for their brutality and are quick to use force and terror instead of coercion and bribery. Digging Deeper The unfortunate illegal immigrants came to Mexico from even poorer countries in South and Central…
A Brief History On August 23, 1954, a harmless looking cargo aircraft made its first flight when the C-130 had become airborne. It would go on to become perhaps the greatest cargo plane in history, still in production over 50 years later! Despite its fantastic versatility as a troop and cargo transport, airborne laboratory, electronic warfare, weather reconnaissance plane, aerial tanker, fire fighter, search and rescue, paradrops, sensor drops, Special Forces support, and bomber that drops the largest bomb in the US Air Force (the MOAB, Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or colloquially, “Mother of All Bombs” due to its giant…
A Brief History On August 22, 1971, Cold War anti-communist zealots FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General of the US John Mitchell announced the arrest of “The Camden 28,” anti-Viet Nam War protesters that had broken into a Camden, New Jersey draft board to destroy documents necessary for the administration of the military draft for that area. Digging Deeper The 28 anti-war activists included priests and former seminarians, and quite a few people that had experienced Catholic high school or college education, and some were involved in the priesthood (2 priests and a minister, plus a Franciscan Brother)…
A Brief History On August 14, 1893, some idiot in France dreamed up motor vehicle registration. I wonder how long it took for someone to dream up long irritating lines… Digging Deeper Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: How long have you had to wait in line when registering a motor vehicle? If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons! Your readership is much appreciated! Historical Evidence For more on this topic, please…