A Brief History On April 7, 1868, one year after he helped Canada achieve a measure of independence in the formation of the Canadian Confederation, Irish immigrant to the United States and then Canada, Thomas D’Arcy Etienne Grace Hughes McGee, was assassinated by Patrick J. Whelan, a Fenian Irish nationalist. McGee goes down in history as one of the Founding Fathers of Canada, what they call the Fathers of Confederation. Digging Deeper Ironically, McGee, born and raised in Ireland as a Catholic that hated the British rule over the Emerald Isle, fought against that British rule for Irish independence and…
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A Brief History On April 6, 1888, Thomas Green Clemson died, leaving his fortune for the establishment of The Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, the college that became Clemson University. Ranked #24 among all public universities in the United States by US News and World Report magazine, Clemson University is much more than just a college football powerhouse. So happy are Clemson graduates with the education they received there, the school ranks #3 in the US for the percentage of alumni that donate back to the university. And yet this wonderful institution of learning was founded by a man…
A Brief History On April 5, 2019, the chilling Stephen King story, Pet Sematary (novel 1983) is ready once again for widespread release on the big screen as a reboot of the 1989 movie version. A cautionary tale along the lines of The Monkey’s Paw, The Box, and any such “be careful what you wish for” type of stories, Pet Sematary teaches us that dead things are better left dead. Digging Deeper The gist of the story is that Louis Creed, a medical doctor, and his family, consisting of a wife (Rachel), a toddler (Gage) and a Kindergarten age daughter…
A Brief History On April 4, 1965, Swedish automaker and aerospace manufacturer Saab introduced its upcoming Saab 37 Viggen (Thunderbolt) fighter jet, the most advanced European jet fighter design until superseded by the Panavia Tornado in 1981. The futuristic looking Viggen was distinctive in its “canard” design, a sort of double delta wing layout never before used on a mass produced aircraft. The Viggen replaced the Saab 35 Draken (Dragon) as Sweden’s primary jet fighter. The Draken, introduced in 1955, had been the first fully supersonic jet fighter produced in Europe. Digging Deeper Originally created as an airplane manufacturing company…
A Brief History On April 3, 2017, an alleged Uzbek/Russian terrorist set off a suicide bomb on a Russian rapid transit train (called the Metro), killing himself and about 15 other people, as well as injuring another 4 dozen or so. Luckily, a second bomb failed to detonate and was later defused by police bomb technicians. Once again, a deranged, homicidal person proved that such people do not need guns to commit mass murder. Digging Deeper The suspected terrorist, Akbarzhon Jalilov, was born in Kyrgystan and was of Uzbek ethnic nationality. He was reportedly upset with the Russian involvement in…