A Brief History On May 15, 2010, Australian 16 year old Jessica Watson completed a non-stop and solo unassisted sail voyage around the world, the youngest person to achieve this feat. Digging Deeper Watson piloted a 33.6 foot sailboat on her trip of seven months that covered nearly 20,000 nautical miles. She is just one of many people that achieved great feats before turning 18 years old, some of whom include: American Marjorie Gestring became the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in 1936 when she won the 3-meter diving event at the age of 13. Eight Olympic champions have been age…
Browsing: Politics
A Brief History On May 12, 1982, a bayonet wielding assassin was wrestled into custody by the bodyguards of Pope John Paul II at Fatima, Portugal only a year after John Paul II had been shot and seriously wounded in another assassination attempt! The would be assassin was a defrocked Catholic priest, a journalist and lawyer, a veritable living cliché! At least one other attempt was to be made on John Paul’s life, this time foiled when the assassins suffered a fire while building the bomb intended for the murder. Digging Deeper Many world leaders have survived assassination attempts, including…
A Brief History On May 10, 1922, the US annexed an atoll in the North Pacific, an unoccupied, mostly underwater formation called Kingman Reef. Between Hawaii and Samoa, the 7.4 acre reef is known as the Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuge administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Digging Deeper Other than the 50 states and Puerto Rico, the US owns many territories, mostly islands in both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Some of these include the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States…
A Brief History On May 7, 1992, the State of Michigan ratified the 27th Amendment after a two century struggle to pass this “common sense” law, namely that Congress cannot give itself a raise during a current term. Digging Deeper Laws are by nature political, and therefore differences of opinion about what is a “good” law generates fierce debate, but we offer some ideas for laws that we think are good and invite you to nominate your own ideas. Term limits for elected officials, especially in Congress, and also for the Supreme Court and Federal Courts. Mandatory ethical standards for…
A Brief History On April 30, 2008, Russian scientists confirmed that the skeletal remains found near the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk, in the Ural District of Russia, were indeed the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the son and daughter of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II and his wife, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Digging Deeper Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in 1917, due to ongoing political unrest and the disastrous conduct of World War I. The Czar and Czarina were executed in 1918, along with their four daughters and son, Alexei,…