A Brief History On June 13, 1996, after a tense 81 day standoff with the FBI, a group of Americans in the area of Jordan, Montana that had declared themselves “sovereign citizens” not subject to the laws of the United States, finally surrendered. Digging Deeper The Montana Freemen, as they called themselves, had the idea that they could legally declare their lands “Justus Township,” an independent entity outside the jurisdiction of the US government. Various disregard of laws and debts soon got this group in legal and financial trouble, and some were convicted of crimes. By 1996, the FBI had…
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A Brief History On June 11, 980, Vladimir the Great was proclaimed the ruler of all Kievan Rus’, having consolidated an empire consisting of the lands from what is now Ukraine in the East to the Baltic Sea in the West, the White Sea in the North, and to the Black Sea in the South. Digging Deeper Called the Kievan Realm, the people comprising this vast country included what are now Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Nordic, and Finnic people along with other Slavic people. As the name implies, the capital of these people was located in Kyiv. Vladimir, bearing the titles…
A Brief History On June 5, 1893, the murder trial of Lizzie Borden began. Borden was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe. Despite the popular assumption of her guilt, she was acquitted in one of the most famous trials in US history. Digging Deeper Some of the other candidates as the most famous American trial include the following: In The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial of 1921 for robbery and murder, the men were believed by many to be railroaded because they were immigrants and anarchists in a case that saw worldwide attention. The Scopes Monkey Trial…
A Brief History On June 2, 1780, a week of violent rioting began in London, England, the worst in the city’s history, by protestors against recent legislation to reduce official discrimination against Catholics. Digging Deeper Known as The Gordon Riots due to Lord George Gordon being a primary anti-Catholic leader, a staggering 300 to 700 people were killed and many more injured, while property was damaged including the embassies of Catholic countries. Also damaged was the reputation and prestige of England in the eyes of the rest of Europe, especially those nations with large Catholic populations. The cause of complaint…
A Brief History On May 22, 2017, an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, was rocked at the end by a horrific terrorist attack by a man of Libyan descent in the name of ISIS. Digging Deeper Salman Ramadan Abedi, age 22, and his co-conspirator brother, Hashem Abedi, age 20, were deemed responsible for the suicide blast that killed 22 innocent concert goers and Salman. Hashem was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, but only got a 55 year prison sentence due to British law protecting people less than 21 years of age from life in…