A Brief History On January 5, 1066, Edward the Confessor of England died, setting the stage for what became the Norman Conquest.  On January 5, 1500, Charles the Bold also died, killed in battle.  Of course, this guy is not to be confused with Charles the Bald, although he was also known as Charles the Rash, but not because of a skin condition!  In the past we have pointed out the odd names bestowed upon historical figures, and today we speculate about what names our current crop of luminaries would be called if people still were named according to a…

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A Brief History Documentary fans, here is your chance to be among the first in Cleveland, Ohio to see Alien Intrusion: Unmasking a Deception on Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 7:00 PM at Regal Richmond Town Square Stadium 20 in Richmond Heights, Ohio!  Please visit this link for the chance to win a pass.  Winners will be notified by January 10th via email address provided.  Tickets will be sent electronically to the email address provided. Digging Deeper Millions of people have seen UFOs and many even recall personal encounters with strange entities.  The popular view is that these are advanced aliens…

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A Brief History On January 4, 1847, inventor of the modern revolving pistol, Sam Colt, first sold his 1847 Walker .44 caliber revolver to the US Army, and the pistol promptly made its mark in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) where the revolver gave the Americans a decided advantage.  Since then, there have been many assorted pistols issued for use in combat by the US Military, some successful designs that lasted many years and some not so successful designs.  Today we list the 10 Pistols/Revolvers that we think are the best of the bunch.  (We will also mention a few of…

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A Brief History On January 3, 2000, the final new comic strip of the Peanuts (Charlie Brown, et al) series was published in the nation’s newspapers, ending a 50 year run as an iconic funny papers staple.  Less than a month later, the strip’s creator, Charles M. Schulz, died of colon cancer at the age of 77.  We still see “reruns” of Peanuts comic strips, but the days of getting new strips are long gone, as are the days of many other bygone comic strips that were once something for Americans to look forward to in the comics section of…

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A Brief History On January 2, 1991, Sharon Pratt Kelly became the first African American woman mayor of a large American city when she was sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C.  Only the third mayor of our nation’s capital, Kelly served until succeeded by Marion Barry on January 2, 1995.  In fact, it was the same Marion Barry that Pratt had succeeded as mayor herself! Digging Deeper Born in the capital in 1944, Sharon went on to graduate from Howard University and continued her education there until she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1968.  While at Howard, she…

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