A Brief History On August 14, 1480, during the protracted Battle of Otranto in Southern Italy, a siege of the city between the Ottoman Turks and the Italian defenders of their homeland, the Ottomans, who of course were of the Islamic faith, took 800 Christian Italians hostage and gave them a choice, convert to Islam or be executed.  The Italian Christians chose not to renounce their faith, and in turn beheaded by the Ottomans.  Sadly, this terrible incident is but one of many in which one side or the other has attempted to use force upon other people to cause…

A Brief History On August 12, 1676, John Alderman, known as a “Praying Indian” because he was a Native American converted to Christianity, shot and killed Chief Metacomet of the Wampanoag people, thus ending the conflict known as King Phillip’s War. Digging Deeper King Phillip’s War, known also by a bewildering array of other names, including Metacom’s War, The First Indian War, Metacomet’s War, Pometacomet’s Rebellion, and Metacom’s Rebellion, was a conflict that lasted from June 20, 1675 until the death of Metacomet in 1676, although some fighting continued in the Northern areas of British colonies until April of 1678. …

A Brief History On August 10, 2020, the people of the United States, notably those involved in the news media and those prospective Democratic or Independent voters that may or may not choose to give former Vice President Joe Biden the nod for President based on his judgement in choosing an appropriate Vice Presidential running mate, eagerly await Biden’s announcement about his choice for Vice President. Having already promised to choose a woman as his running mate, Biden has already demonstrated a disregard for choosing the “best available candidate” by eliminating all men from consideration.  With many suitable women available…

A Brief History On August 10, 1978, three members of a family died in a fiery crash when their Ford Pinto was rear-ended.  The bolts on the differential were positioned in such a manner that in the case of a rear-end collision, the bolts would pierce the gas tank.  Ford had known about the problem but chose not to correct it, electing to pay off lawsuits instead.  We used this unfortunate incident to highlight those terrible flaws and features in cars and non-commercial trucks in our previous article, “10 Worst Car Features and Flaws Ever!” and today we add another…

A Brief History On August 7, 1987, an American woman named Lynne Cox, age 30, swam all the way from the United States to the Soviet Union, through ice cold water!  Cox’s swim was a good will gesture during the latter stages of the Cold War between the USSR and its (communist) allies and the United States and its allies.  The successful swim was later given credit for helping to “thaw” relations between the US and USSR, though we doubt the swim helped thaw out Cox! Digging Deeper As far as notable long distance swims go, this particular one was…