A Brief History On September 2, 1807, the British Royal Navy and Army bombarded the port city of Copenhagen, Denmark, using fire bombs and phosphorus incendiary rockets in order to prevent neutral Denmark from deciding to align with Napoleonic France and turn over the use of its war fleet to the French and their allies.  This preemptive attack against a neutral country not at war with Britain is not an isolated event, but a calculated preemptive attack Britain has demonstrated the willingness to engage in over the course of history. Digging Deeper Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, had taken…

A Brief History On August 31, 1965, fans of super-different airplanes could add another oddity to their list when the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy made its first flight.  A bulbous looking whale of an airplane, the Super Guppy was the successor to the Pregnant Guppy, an equally goofy looking giant cargo plane.  Today we take a look at some of these quite real and intended for practical use airplanes, not jokes or intentionally comical, but serious aircraft built with a serious purpose.  Some of these airplanes were experimental, others saw active service.  As always, give us your nominations of planes…

A Brief History On August 28, 1964, the City of Philadelphia erupted into a race riot when the predominantly African American neighborhoods of North Philadelphia in the Columbia Avenue area broke out into a full blown riot between the police and African American residents that had long complained of police brutality.  The riot, which resulted in 341 injuries and nearly 800 arrests, had been preceded by a concerted effort by the City of Philadelphia and its police department to repair and reinforce rapport between the police and Black residents.  Apparently, those efforts came up short! Digging Deeper As the United…

A Brief History On August 26, 1444, the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs was fought between an army of mercenaries representing France against a much smaller force of pikemen from the Old Swiss Confederacy.  The battle was part of the Old Zürich War, fought between 1440 and 1446. Digging Deeper The Old Zurich War was one of the many wars fought in Europe regarding the rights to succession when a ruling member of the nobility died, in this case Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg, who died in 1436.  The Toggenburg lands, which include Zurich, were contested along with…

A Brief History On August 24, 1950, Edith Spurlock Sampson, an attorney of African American heritage, became the first African American of either gender to become a United States delegate to the United Nations.  At this point in American History, the lot of Black Americans had definitely improved since the pre-World War II era, but still retained a daunting level of discrimination against African Americans in many different ways, making the appointment of Sampson to the American United Nations delegation a major milestone in African American History.  (See our other many articles about African American achievement.) Digging Deeper Edith had…