A Brief History On March 15, 1986, the Hotel New World in Singapore arguably became the worst hotel in the world in moments when the six story building suddenly collapsed, burying 50 people under the rubble. Fortunately, 17 of those people were saved, but the other 33 died. Digging Deeper Hotel New World, originally called the New Serangoon Hotel, was built in 1971 and had a name change in 1984. The ground floor was a bank, the second floor was a nightclub, and the top four floors were the hotel. A parking garage was in the basement. Perhaps an omen…
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A Brief History On an unknown date in 267, Odaenathus, King of Palmyra, was assassinated along with his son and co-king. Digging Deeper Odaenathus’s biographer in the Historia Augusta laments the king’s assassination in the following passage: “Some god, I believe, was angry with the commonwealth, who, after Valerian’s death, was unwilling to preserve Odaenathus alive. For of a surety he, with his wife Zenobia, would have restored not only the East, which he had already brought back to its ancient condition, but also all parts of the whole world everywhere, since he was fierce in warfare and, as most writers…
A Brief History On March 14, 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was sentenced to death for the murder, which had been broadcast live on national TV, but on appeal a new trial was ordered that did not happen when Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism in 1967. Digging Deeper Born Jacob Leon Rubenstein in Chicago to parents of Polish/Jewish heritage, Ruby got in trouble as a juvenile but later served in the US Army during World War II. Moving to Dallas, Ruby was…
A Brief History On March 13, 222, the Roman army hailed Severus Alexander as emperor, following the assassination two days earlier of his cousin Elagabalus. Digging Deeper In at least two excerpts from the biography of Alexander in the Historia Augusta, the emperor is described as having a disdain for jewelry. In the first, the biographer says, “All the jewels that he had he sold and the proceeds he deposited in the public treasury, saying that men had no need of jewels, and that the women of the royal household should be content with one hair-net, a pair of earrings,…
A Brief History On March 13, 1825, Pope Leo XII published an apostolic constitution called Quo graviora, a church law that forbade Catholics from becoming Freemasons. His order confirmed earlier papal edicts and was confirmed again in 2023. Digging Deeper The current status for any Catholic joining the Freemasons is that those “who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.” Apparently the secret rites of Freemasonry are what Catholics object to. Freemasonry goes back to perhaps 1599 or as recently as the 1700s and is an organization of people that…
