A Brief History On December 28, 1918, Constance Markievicz, while an inmate in Holloway prison, London, England, made history as the first woman elected to British House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP). You may notice her last name is not a typically British name, but her birth name of Constance Georgine Gore-Booth represents her English and Irish ancestry. Her married name, Markievicz, you may recognize as a Slavic appellation, specifically Polish. It is her husband, Casimir Markievicz, a playwright, director and artist that provides the background for the theme of this article, that of the changing and…
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A Brief History On December 27, 1512, the King and Queen of Spain issued the Laws of Burgos, a set of rules for how Spaniards were to treat Native Americans in the Caribbean islands colonized by Spain. Prior to this point there was haphazard ways of dealing with Native peoples, and ample incidents of cruelty and oppression. The European “discovery” of the Americas was only 20 years old at this time, and by this time it had become apparent some consistent rules were needed to keep with Catholic and Spanish ideas of law and morality. Digging Deeper The name, Laws…
A Brief History On December 15, 1973, with a vote of 13-0, the American Psychiatric Association agreed to remove homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders. We marked this historical event with our article, “Is Homosexuality a Mental Disorder?” Today we take a look at some of the many famous or important historical figures that are known or believed to have been homosexual or something other than straight heterosexual. Some on the list you may be familiar with, while others may come as a surprise. Some on the list may only be the subject of conjecture, with no definitive historical…
A Brief History On December 12, 1937, the USS Panay, a gunboat afloat on the Yangtze River near the city of Nanking (now called Nanjing) was attacked by Japanese military aircraft and sunk, with the loss of three American lives. The United States and Japan were not at war and the incident was claimed by the Japanese to be due to mistaken identity of the American ship, despite clear American flags painted on the decks. The Panay was not the first, nor the last, American vessel to be attacked by forces of another country not at war with the United…
A Brief History On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (Britain, et al), signed the Instrument of Abdication, basically his resignation letter. King George VI followed him onto the throne and life went on for all involved, especially for Edward who allegedly never really wanted to be King and was free to marry “the woman I love” now that he was not constrained by Royal obligations. Today we list some national leaders that resigned, either in defeat, in protest, or in disgrace. As hard as it must be to quit a top tier corporate job (such…