A Brief History On May 20, 1969, the Battle of Hamburger Hill came to an end. A regiment of the US Army 101st Airmobile Division alongside South Vietnamese allies fought the North Vietnamese Army over Hill 937 for a week of bitter combat, until finally the US and South Vietnamese kicked the defenders off the hill. Only two weeks later, the Americans decided to abandon the hill so dearly bought in blood! Digging Deeper The American commanders apparently thought the fact that North Vietnamese forces were on a hill that provided a good view of the surrounding terrain was an…
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A Brief History On May 19, 1051, Anne of Kiev, also known as Anna Yaroslavna, married the King of France, Henry I. When Henry died nine years later, Anne effectively ruled France as regent for her underage son who had inherited the throne. Digging Deeper Princess Anna was the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise who held the titles of Grand Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod in the Rus civilization of what is now Ukraine that also became Russia and Belarus. Her mother was Ingegerd Olofsdotter, also known as Saint Anna or Irene, the daughter of Swedish King Olof…
A Brief History On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court of the US ruled that “separate but equal” was a legal doctrine for segregating Caucasian Americans from Americans of sub-Saharan African descent, especially regarding school children. The case known as Plessy v. Ferguson is frequently referred to as the most egregious error in judgement ever made by the Supreme Court. Oddly enough, the case has never been overturned, except regarding the classroom. Digging Deeper Some other cases that have attracted the ire of Supreme Court critics include Dred Scott v. Sandford of 1857 claiming that American citizenship did not extend…
A Brief History On May 12, 1965, the Soviet space craft, Luna 5, an unmanned spaceship designed to become the first ever Earth launched craft to make a controlled landing on the surface of the Moon, instead crashed when its retro-rockets failed to ignite. Digging Deeper Soviet space agency attempts to land a spacecraft on the Moon had previously failed, both at launch and at landing. After US President John F. Kennedy had boldly claimed the US would land a man on the Moon and safely return him to Earth before the decade was over, the US and the USSR…
A Brief History On May 11, 1812, the lobby of the British House of Commons was the scene of an unprecedented and as yet not repeated historical event, the assassination of a British Prime Minister. Digging Deeper Spencer Perceval had been Prime Minister since October of 1809, representing the Tory party. Previously he had served as an MP, Solicitor-General, Attorney General, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, the only British politician to hold those offices and then become Prime Minister. On the fateful day, Perceval was shot in the chest by a single pistol round fired by John Bellingham, a British…