A Brief History On February 25, 1836, Sam Colt patented his cap and ball revolver that would give rise to all the modern revolvers that followed. Early attempts at revolvers in the flintlock era were disasters waiting to happen, as all too often the firing of one cylinder would set off the others as well. Over the years some iconic revolvers have been produced, and until the late 20th Century they remained the sidearm of choice for police and private citizens (although the semi-automatic pistol had superseded revolvers for military use for the most part as of the early 20th…

A Brief History On February 24, 1942, an “order in council” was passed by the Canadian government that authorized the internment of all persons of Japanese ancestry in Canada. (On the same day, the United States passed a measure under the “War Powers Act” to also intern Japanese Americans. See our article, “Forced Internment of Japanese During World War II”) The internment order followed a series of other measures taken against Japanese people in Canada, including the seizing of Japanese owned fishing boats, interrogations, curfews and general harassment and discrimination. Incredibly, some of these measures stayed in effect until 1949!…

A Brief History On February 23, 1903, the United States signed a lease with Cuba for a 45 square mile chunk of land on Guantanamo Bay on that island, a lease for $2,000 per year, payable in gold, and lasting in perpetuity (forever). Known by the US military as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, it is the oldest US naval base outside the United States. Used as a coaling station (when ships were powered by coal) and as a general purpose naval base, the station known as “Gitmo” has since 2002 housed a prison for suspected terrorists captured during the War…

A Brief History On February 22, 2018, we have only one more day to wait for the nationwide debut of the new film by Alex Garland, the screenwriter of 28 Days Later and Dredd, and the writer/director of Ex Machina. This time around Garland wrote the screenplay and directed Annihilation, a film based on the Jeff  VanderMeer novel by the same name. Digging Deeper The VanderMeer story is the first of the “Southern Reach Trilogy” of stories (2014), with Annihilation followed by Authority and Acceptance. Will the second and third novels in the series be adapted for film? We do…

A Brief History On February 22, 2018, we take the opportunity to update our February 22, 2014 article titled “Norwegian Woman Becomes Most Successful Female Winter Olympian”, the tale of uber skier Marit Bjorgen. At the time, Marit had earned 6 Olympic Gold Medals in Winter Olympic competition, and in the 2018 Winter Games held in South Korea she has added another Winter Olympic Gold Medal! Digging Deeper Not only has Marit added another Gold Medal in the 4 X 5 km relay, she also threw in another Silver and another Bronze Medal into her treasure trove of Olympic awards.…