A Brief History On April 19, 1985, around 200 Federal law enforcement officers began a siege of “The Farm,” a compound of the Covenant, Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), a right wing white supremacist paramilitary survivalist organization.  You may recall that April 19 (1993) is the date of the great fire and mass deaths at the Waco Branch Davidian conclusion of another Federal siege, and that April 19 (1995) is the date of the Oklahoma City Federal Building terrorist bombing.  If this is not enough domestic terror related events for one date, you can recall the April…

A Brief History On April 18, 1857, Frenchman Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, writing under the nom de plume Allan Kardec, published The Spirits Book, marking the beginning of the Spiritism philosophy (or religion or movement, if you prefer).  Today, the International Spiritist Council has representatives in 35 countries with its headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil. Digging Deeper The publishing of The Spirits Book is celebrated by Spiritists, and today, April 18, 2017, is National Day of Spiritism in the United States.  The total number of adherents is unknown, but said to be in the millions, with 5 million followers in Brazil…

A Brief History On April 17, 1905, the US Supreme Court dealt a blow to Progressives that were mobilizing across the United States to reform business practices, government, and a myriad of social and cultural institutions.  (See our article, The Progressive Era, from April 15, 2017)  The decision known as Lochner v New York overturned a state law that attempted to protect bakery workers from excessive work hours. Digging Deeper A New York state law had been passed that limited bakery workers to a maximum of 10 hours per day and 60 hours per week, an effort to enhance the quality of…

A Brief History On April 16, 1881, Legend of the Old West and buddy of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, fought his last gun fight in Dodge City, Kansas. This archetypical macho man of the Wild West was a renowned gunfighter, lawman, scout, Indian fighter, and buffalo hunter, yet he is best remembered for wearing a suit jacket and a Derby hat! Digging Deeper Born in 1853 in Quebec, Canada, you may be surprised to know Bat was not even a native born American.  Of Irish stock, the Masterson family were farmers in Canada, New York, and Illinois before ending up…

A Brief History On April 15, 2017, we get a 2-day reprieve from the filing limit date for filing our Federal Income Tax Returns, since the day falls on Saturday. By Monday, April 17, 2017, you better either have your tax return in the mail or have applied for an extension. Americans did not always have an income tax, although it may seem like it to you. Digging Deeper Back in the 1890’s through the 1920’s the United States of America underwent a period called the Progressive Era, a period in which activists sought to improve the quality of life…