A Brief History On April 11, 1079, Bishop Stanislaus of Kraków, Poland, later Saint Stanislaus, was executed either by the order of or perhaps by the direct hand of King Bolesław II of Poland. After the execution, the body of the slain Bishop was chopped up into small pieces and scattered in the forest, presumably to be eaten by the forest critters. Lo and Behold! The pieces of the body of the future Catholic Saint reassembled themselves! Digging Deeper While no word of any coming back to life was noted, chroniclers did say that 4 eagles guarded the body of…
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A Brief History On April 10, 1944, 2 Jewish inmates of the German concentration camp at Auschwitz, in Poland, escaped to tell the world of the horrors they had witnessed. (The name of the camp is Oświęcim in Polish.) They soon reported the incredible conditions of the camp and the ongoing extermination of European Jews by the Nazi regime of Germany. Their report, known as the Vrba–Wetzler report, shocked the world and resulted in the government of Hungary, an ally of Germany during World War II, to stop deporting Hungarian Jews to Germany for extermination in the dreaded concentration camps.…
A Brief History On April 9, 1388, at the Battle of Näfels, a military force of the Old Swiss Confederation fought a much larger force representing the Austrian royal family, the Habsburgs. In a stunning example of David beating Goliath, the Swiss soldiers won a rousing victory, an indication of why other powerful European countries have been leaving Switzerland alone for many years now. Digging Deeper At the Battle of Näfels, the Swiss fielded a modest troop of only about 400 or so fighting men against a superior Austrian force numbering around 6500 soldiers. The attacking Austrians at first forced…
A Brief History On April 2, 1930, Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia died, making her the last (most recent) Empress regnant in world history. Will there be another empress someday? In the past, we have discussed women leaders and even some “badass women” and today we take a look at this last female head of an empire. When will another woman become empress of an empire? If you know of any candidates, share that information with us! Digging Deeper Zewditu, named Askala Maryam at birth in 1876, was the daughter of King Menelik of Shewa, the man who would become Emperor…
A Brief History On March 31, 2018, we published an article about “Jerks of the Month,” a topic we have touched upon from time to time. Today, we modify our approach to discuss only those jerks as they relate to our coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that is killing people across the country and the world and threatens to destroy our economy. This pandemic is serious business and it needs serious people to beat the sneaky illness, NOT Jerks! (Feel free to add your own nominees to our list or to dispute those persons we have cited.) See our other article “What…