A Brief History On November 13, 1922, the United States Supreme Court decision called Zucht v. King, upheld the discretion that allowed a Texas school board to require mandatory vaccination of school children against smallpox. Digging Deeper The court cited a previous decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905), that allowed states to force vaccination and claimed that the “police power” of the state to maintain “health and safety” of the public justified such measures. Today, smallpox is virtually eradicated, but other old diseases keep cropping up as do new germs and viruses. As we found out in 2020, mankind is always…
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A Brief History On November 12, 2011, Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, resigned due to a debt crisis, not the many accusations of sexual misconduct that would mar his career, including holding “bunga-bunga” sex parties! Despite all the sordid reports and corruption, he died in 2023 as the third richest man in Italy. Today, we list a few of the worst political sex scandals and ask you to tell us which was the worst. Digging Deeper In the 15th Century, Pope Alexander VI allegedly had sex orgies and incest with his daughter. In 1998, President Bill Clinton lied about…
A Brief History On November 9, 1993, the Mostar Bridge, also known as the Stari Most, collapsed due to bombing by Croatian forces in the Croat–Bosniak War of 1992 to 1994. Located in Mostar, the capital of Herzegovina, the bridge was completed in 1566. Digging Deeper Too many times historical buildings, structures, or art works are lost because of wars. Today, we take a look at some of those precious items destroyed by human stupidity. Dating back to 529 and mostly built in the 16th and 17th Centuries, the Allies reluctantly bombed the Monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy in 1944,…
A Brief History On September 25, 1555, the peace treaty known as the Peace of Augsburg or alternately as the Augsburg Settlement was signed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his opponents, known as the Schmalkaldic League. Digging Deeper The signing took place in the German city of Augsburg, giving the treaty its name. The Holy Roman Empire of the time consisted of a Catholic consortium of countries, including Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Burgundy, as well as portions of Italy. Opposing the Emperor was the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes within the empire that…
A Brief History On September 24, 2015, yet another religious related tragedy occurred when as many as 2,000 faithful Muslims in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj were stampeded and suffocated when a large crowd met another large crowd at a road intersection and chaos resulted. The worst tragedy in a long line of Hajj related tragedies, some estimates were as high as over 2,400 dead, the worst Hajj related disaster. Digging Deeper In previous articles we have discussed tragedies and disasters related to religious events and locations, and asked the question, “What do these tragedies mean?” If you are a…
