Browsing: Society

A Brief History On January 6, 2014, only one year ago today, former Venezuelan beauty queen Monica Spear, age 29, was murdered on a lonely Venezuelan roadside along with her ex-husband during a botched robbery. Digging Deeper The beauty had previously reigned as Miss Venezuela 2004 and came in as the 4th runner up in the 2005 Miss Universe contest.  She had married British citizen Thomas Berry in 2008 and had a daughter, but the couple divorced in 2012. Of German and English extraction, Monica’s family had emigrated to Venezuela prior to her birth.  Monica herself had moved to Orlando, Florida…

A Brief History On January 4, 1972, the famous Old Bailey court in London England witnessed the first appointment of a female judge when Rose Heilbron was allowed to sit on the bench.  This event raised the questions: Are women emotionally or hormonally fit to judge other people?  Should they have life-altering decisions placed in their hands?  These questions may seem silly now, but 40 years ago women still faced much discrimination for being the “weaker” sex.  Digging Deeper If you are a regular reader History and Headlines, you are familiar with our frequent articles acknowledging and lauding the accomplishments of women.  From their achievement of political…

A Brief History On January 3, 1933, history was made in North Dakota when Minnie D. Craig became the Speaker of the State House of Representatives.  As such, Craig became the first female speaker of any House of Representatives in the United States, an entire 74 years before Nancy Pelosi was selected for that position at the national level! Digging Deeper As Speaker during the time of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, she had a difficult 2 years.  An activist, she encouraged women to participate in the political process.  In all,  Craig served six consecutive sessions in the North Dakota state…

A Brief History On December 31, 1695, a tax on windows went into effect in England, which resulted in many people boarding up or bricking up their windows so that they would not be subject to the tax.    In a never-ending quest to take every penny, farthing, ruble, peseta, pfennig, shekel and sou from every last working person, governments all around the world show unlimited ingenuity when it comes to dreaming up things to tax, no matter how stupid. Digging Deeper Russia made a bid for a spot in this article by passing a tax on beards in 1698, which was an effort to force…

A Brief History On December 30, 1813, during the War of 1812, arson-happy British troops set the small city of Buffalo, New York ablaze as a means of punishing the upstart Americans.  Less than a year later, the British also ignited Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. Digging Deeper In fact, the British threated to burn towns down in an effort to extract ransoms from the townsfolk in exchange for not torching the buildings.  In this case, however, perhaps the British ire was somewhat justified because it was the U.S. that had declared war on Great Britain in the first place.  Of course, there…