A Brief History On January 24, 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began its operations. This new agency was born from the ashes of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. It had been painfully obvious that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and military intelligence agencies had not been effectively communicating with each other and that unless something was done to institutionalize such coordination, the U.S. would be vulnerable to more such attacks. Digging Deeper Given the mission of protecting the United States and its territories from both manmade and natural disasters, as…
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A Brief History On January 22, 1987, Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer called a news conference to read a statement in front of the gathered journalists and television cameras. Digging Deeper Dwyer had been convicted of accepting bribes in connection with giving a contract to an accounting firm hired to determine what refunds were owed to Pennsylvania government workers who had been overtaxed. Throughout the entire process, Dwyer adamantly insisted upon his complete innocence and said he was being framed. Scheduled to be sentenced the next day by a judge who was known for stiff sentences and who had gloated over the guilty verdict, after Dwyer…
A Brief History On January 21, 1535, in the aftermath of “The Affair of the Placards,” French Protestants were burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Digging Deeper Starting in October of 1534, in the largest French cities, Protestant activists had been hanging up posters (placards) casting aspersions on the Catholic Church, the most gutsy move being the hanging of such a poster on King Franςois I’s bedroom door! This action apparently was the last straw for the frightened King who reaffirmed his Catholic faith as the religion of the land and…
A Brief History On January 19, 2014, one year ago today, Serena Williams, the reigning Number 1 female tennis player in the world, was upset in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Along with her sister Venus, the Williams girls are the two most successful sibling tennis players ever. History is full of brothers and sisters who have achieved greatness either in the same endeavor or in separate careers. Here we list 10 such relatives from a variety of professions. (History and Headlines Note: If Jeb Bush is elected President of the United States in 2016, he and his brother…
A Brief History On January 16, 2014, one year ago today, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that the American National Security Agency (NSA) had been recording billions of global telephone messages, texts, emails, and financial transactions in the name of national security. To put this information into perspective, at the time of the British article’s publication, 200 million text messages were being collected daily! Digging Deeper This mountain of data is not just being collected from foreigners but also from American citizens! Supposedly done as part of an anti-terrorism program and with the oversight of Congress, many Congressmen and Senators were…