A Brief History Just after 4 pm on this date, December 6 in 1989, an apparently mentally disturbed Marc Lepine went to the Université de Montreal and entered the École Polytechnique building armed with a Ruger Mini-14 carbine, a knife, and murder in his heart fueled by a hatred for “feminists.” Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find a twenty-five-year old son of an Algerian father and French-Canadian mother who was instilled with a deep disrespect and hatred of women by his abusive father. Not fairing particularly well with his personal attempts to gain a college education, Lepine (born Gamil Gharbi,…
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A Brief History On December 5, 1945, a flight of U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers flew into history, providing grist for the paranormal mill that the Bermuda Triangle became! Digging Deeper The training flight of Avengers took off from Naval Air Station (NAS) Ft. Lauderdale at around 1410 hours (military time) for a routine navigation training flight. Oddly, although necessary for over water navigation (remember, maps would not help!) each airplane was missing its clock. Assuming the pilots had wrist watches, the flight took off as normal. Things seemed to be going as planned, with a practice bomb drop…
A Brief History On December 5, 1933, history was made that would change the United States (back) forever! Well, you never know, so maybe not forever. In any event, this date was the day Prohibition ended in the United States, although its legacy lives on in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Digging Deeper The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, known as the Volstead Act had been passed in 1920 riding a wave of anti-alcohol sentiment, largely by women that had previously been active in the women’s suffrage movement. Apparently, women especially were likely to be anti-alcohol as they saw drunkenness as a…
A Brief History On December 3, 1984, the terrible tragedy at Bhopal, India took place when a huge quantity of methyl isocyanate (MIC) escaped and exposed 500,000 people to this poison and other chemicals, over 2,200 of whom died immediately and perhaps 16,000 more deaths over the ensuing weeks. Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find the table set for disaster at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant built in 1969 to produce the pesticide “Sevin” and later the pesticide MIC when numerous leaks and other safety violations took place leading up to the disaster. Ignoring normal safety practices and…
A Brief History On December 2, 1993, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot (through the ears!) and officially killed in Medellín by Colombian National Police, although his brothers claim the death was a suicide. Digging Deeper In 1993, the second of December was a bloody day of victory for international law enforcement. That day marked the end of Pablo Escobar (aka: Pablo Emillio Escobar Gaviria), the head of the Medellin drug cartel and the second worst (best) money launderer in human history. Born December 1, 1949, Escobar started a long criminal career by stealing grave stones, running a variety…