A Brief History On November 30, 1786, Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I of The Grand Duchy of Tuscany initiated the first ban on capital punishment of any modern state. Contrary to other European leaders, and for that matter, virtually all World leaders, apparently Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire) must have thought the death penalty was not essential for those in power to remain in power. A proponent of “Enlightened Absolutism” (alternately called “Enlightened Despotism”), Leopold believed in the power of a monarchy to be used for the benefit of the people, but in a benevolent…
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A Brief History On November 29, 1987, Korean Air Lines Flight 858 exploded over the Andaman Sea, downing the jet liner and killing all 115 people aboard the plane, mostly people from South Korea. The cause of the deadly blast was a bomb planted by North Korean “agents,” basically state sponsored terrorists, at the behest of the son of North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung and future dictator of North Korea himself, Kim Jong-il. Normally, such a state sponsored act of terrorism could easily be the casus belli for declaring war against the country that perpetrated such an outrage against humanity,…
A Brief History Computer-animated superhero film fans, here is your chance to be among the first in Cleveland, Ohio to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 11:00 AM at Atlas Cinemas Eastgate 10 in Mayfield Heights, Ohio! For your chance to get a pass, please log on to https://sonyscreenings.com/index.php/redeem/ and enter the following code: HHSpider36483. This pass is valid for up to four seats. Seating is first-come, first-served and is not guaranteed. You must be with your guest to enter. Saving seats for other parties is prohibited. Digging Deeper In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Brooklyn teen Miles Morales must juggle his high…
A Brief History On November 27, 1942, the French Navy under the direction of Admiral Auphan scuttled a large part of the French ships and submarines in port at Toulon, France, in order to keep these valuable assets out of the hands of the German navy, known as the Kriegsmarine. After Germany had rolled over France in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated to Britain, the defeated French sued for peace and found their country divided between Occupied France and nominally “independent” Vichy France in the South of the country. The Vichy French, so named for the de…
A Brief History This article presents a timeline for students of Western Civilization (History 112) at Ashland University. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper I. Introduction On October 3, 2012, a National Geographic explorer announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur, one with vampire-like fangs! On February 7, 2014, scientists in England verified that footprints found in an uncovered sediment layer in Happisburgh, Norfolk were of human, or “hominid” origin and dated back about 900,000 years. On December 18, 1912, Charles Dawson announced…