A Brief History On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland under false pretenses, staging a phony border “incident” that gave them a claim of legitimacy. Little remembered by the public at large, was that Germany had an ally that also took part in that invasion. Digging Deeper No, we are not talking about the Soviet Union, with their infamous “stab in the back” attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, after Germany had invaded. We are referring to Slovakia, a fellow Slavic country with people sharing similar language and cultural traits with the Poles. The Slovak Republic contributed about 50,000…
Read More
A Brief History On August 31, 2006, the Norwegian police announced the recovery of Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream, which had been stolen in 2004. A reward equal to around $313,000 US probably helped them catch the thieves, but many other crimes go unsolved. How many crimes? Read the list below to get a sobering idea about how many crimes in the US go unsolved. (Note: Data varies with source.) Digging Deeper Murder- 50% Rape- 30% Robbery- 27% Burglary- 14% Car theft- 12% Arson- 21% Do any of these meager solving percentages surprise you? Which one surprises you the…
A Brief History On August 30, 2021, the United States of America suffered one of its all-time worst humiliations when the last of the American forces were flown out of Afghanistan, a country the US had invaded in 2001 and was the scene of the longest armed conflict in American history. Digging Deeper After the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, President Bush authorized military action in Afghanistan to strike at the terrorist bases and ultimately to deny those terrorists the safe haven of Afghanistan. Never meant to be a nation building exercise, the woeful fact…
A Brief History On August 29, 1728, the city of Nuuk, Greenland was founded. Kind of an odd name, Nuuk is only one of many cities or places with odd or downright goofy names. Today, we ask you, what is the goofiest name you know of for any city, town, or village? Digging Deeper Here we list some of the contenders, but feel free to nominate your own choice: Hot Coffee, Mississippi Bugtussle, Kentucky Santa Claus, Indiana Two Egg, Florida No Name, Colorado Why, Arizona Whynot, North Carolina Screamer, Alabama Worms, Germany Intercourse, Pennsylvania Truth or Consequences, New Mexico Placentia,…
A Brief History On August 28, 1921, the Red Army disbanded the Ukrainian Makhnovshchina, an anarchist free Ukrainian territory in the Ukraine. The Russians, during the Russian Civil War, 1917 to 1923, sought to keep the Russian Empire together while the formation of the USSR took place. Digging Deeper Russia has long sought to control Ukraine and Ukrainians, and Ukrainians have long sought their own independence. Not only was the Soviet era, 1922 to 1991, brutal for Ukrainians, but the breakup of the USSR in 1991 left Ukraine an impoverished country with worthless Russian guarantees of their borders and national…