A Brief History On April 26, 1982, South Korean police officer Woo Bum-kon killed 56 people (and himself) while wounding another 35 in a single night of mayhem, the worst single person mass murder incident in history (until eclipsed by the Norway attack in 2011 in which 77 were killed) up to that point. Woo was a former Korean Marine and apparently was angry with his girlfriend. Mass murders do NOT only occur in the US, and do NOT require civilian owned firearms to occur. Digging Deeper South Korea has a civilian gun ownership rate of only about 1.1 firearms…
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A Brief History On April 24, 2018, we await word as to whether or not President Donald Trump, a self-professed admirer of Napoleon I Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, will pardon former boxing champion and legend Jack Johnson, another admirer of Napoleon. Sylvester Stallone, the man who made fictional boxer Rocky Balboa a legend, has reportedly encouraged President Trump to issue the pardon. (Note: Regarding their mutual admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte, it seems both men may have a mistaken historical impression of exactly who and what Napoleon Bonaparte was. Trump has conflated Napoleon with Napoleon III and shown a shallow…
A Brief History On April 23, 1348, King Edward III of England proclaimed The Order of the Garter on the feast day of St. George, the Patron Saint of England. Originally called The Most Noble Order of the Garter, it was conceived as the highest award for chivalry in the age of knights. Today, the Order still exists, but ranks behind the Victoria Cross and the George Cross in the hierarchy of British medals. Digging Deeper As you may expect, the Order of the Garter comes from an incident concerning a woman’s garter, a mini-belt that holds up one’s stockings.…
A Brief History On April 21, 1509, King Henry VIII of England ascended to the throne when his father, King Henry VII died. Henry VIII was the second of the Tudor monarchs of England and is best known for his 6 star crossed marriages and for taking England away from the Catholic Church and into the Protestant fold. Henry VIII was also the father of England’s next three monarchs, giving him a pivotal role in English History. Digging Deeper (Note: The premium cable television channel, Showtime, featured a 4 season series starting in 2007 called The Tudors, basically chronicling the…
A Brief History On April 19, 1861, an angry mob with pro-secessionist intentions attacked US Army troops on the streets of Baltimore, an event known as The Baltimore Riot of 1861, or alternately as The Pratt Street Riot or even the more dramatic Pratt Street Massacre. Maryland, being a slave state at the onset of the American Civil War, was not surprisingly divided on whether or not to remain in the Union or join the Confederate States. Digging Deeper The dispute in Baltimore transcended state borders, and the protesters/rioters were not exclusively from Maryland, consisting of local “Copperhead” Democrats that…