A Brief History On January 26, 1965, the Constitution of India was amended to make Hindi the official language of Government in India, with English relegated to a “subsidiary official language.” Although the Indian constitution recognizes 22 “scheduled” languages, there are actually many more dialects spoken throughout the country, about 780, perhaps the second most linguistically diverse nation on Earth (after new Guinea with over 800 languages). Digging Deeper According to the official census of India, there are 122 “major” languages and an additional 1599 languages spoken there (presumably dialects). At least 30 of the languages are spoken by a…
Read More
A Brief History On January 25, 1915, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call spanning the continental United States, placing a call from New York to his assistant, Thomas Watson in San Francisco. This man was the same Thomas Watson that Bell had placed the first telephone call to back in 1876. Digging Deeper The famous words of the first phone call, “Watson, come here! I want to see you.” may or may not be the actual words, but they are the words History remembers. Bell was not the only person working on inventing a telephone, as…
A Brief History On January 24, 2018, the Ashland Eagles women’s basketball team representing Ashland University in Division II college basketball is keeping up the momentum of their terrific National Championship 2016-2017 season by posting a national best record of 19 wins and 0 losses in the 2017-2018 regular season so far. Marching toward another National Championship, the Eagles have run up a Division II record 56 wins in a row going back to last year and have 9 regular season games to go this year before the playoffs start. Digging Deeper On March 24, 2017, Ashland’s basketball ladies completed…
A Brief History On January 23, 1795, one of the most unusual battles in history took place when a force of French cavalry galloped across the frozen Zuiderzee to capture 14 Dutch ships and seize 850 guns (cannon). Known as The Battle of Texel, or otherwise known as The Capture of the Dutch Fleet at Den Helder, the action took place during The War of the First Coalition, one of a series of wars that started with the French Revolution and ended with The War of the Seventh Coalition when Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at Waterloo in 1915. Digging Deeper…
A Brief History On January 20, 2011, the United States Justice Department issued 16 indictments against Northeast American Mafia families resulting in 127 charged defendants and more than 110 arrests. Thinking of the most ruthless and untamed American outlaws it somehow easy to transpose their influence onto a classic picture of what it is called the American Dream. Maybe because these men where the triumphant image of succeeding against all odds. Planting their influence on cultural aspects of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans to this day. Digging Deeper Prohibition and the Upward Movement of the American…