A Brief History On November 10, 1865, the long sad saga of the Camp Sumter prisoner of war camp located in Andersonville, Georgia finally came to a conclusion of sorts when the Camp Commandant, Confederate Major Henry Wirz was hanged for the crimes of conspiracy and murder for his terrible treatment of Union soldiers held captive at the camp popularly known as “Andersonville.” Digging Deeper The name, Andersonville, has become synonymous in the US as being a hell-hole of a prison camp, a place where men starved and died of disease every day.  Heinrich Hartmann Wirz was born in Switzerland…

A Brief History On November 9, 1918, in the face of catastrophic defeat after four years of debilitating war, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated his throne and went into exile in the Netherlands.  Throughout history, leaders have been forced by political or personal circumstances to give up power and leave office, sometimes of their own free will and other times because of outside influence.  Here we list 10 of those leaders that left their position of leadership before their time was due.  (Resigning to assume a higher post does not count.) Digging Deeper 1. Kaiser Wilhelm, Germany, 1918. Kaiser Bill…

A Brief History On November 8, 1973, the severed right ear of John Paul Getty III was delivered to a newspaper with a ransom note demanding $3.2 million in return for the kidnapped heir to the Getty fortune.  The 17 year old John Paul Getty III had been living in Rome, Italy, where he was raised by his father, the son of Jean Paul Getty (usually referred to as JP Getty), the oil magnate that amassed a fortune of over $2 billion by the time of his death in 1976. Digging Deeper The younger Getty lived in Rome while his…

A Brief History On November 7, 1933, Fiorello La Guardia was first elected Mayor of the City of New York, an office he would hold until December 31, 1945.  As any mayor of New York City is automatically well known to all of America, so was La Guardia, but in his case perhaps a lot more famous than usual.  Heck, a major airport is named after him!  Also on November 7 (1967 this time), Carl Stokes of Cleveland became the first African American man elected as mayor of a major American city.  Since it is way too hard for our…

A Brief History On November 6, 2017, we follow up our article from yesterday about Presidents of the US and their smoking habits with an answer to a reader query about the status of women vis a vis smoking through the years.  At the end of the article we list some of our sources, and we would particularly like to recommend the bottom web site as a “must read” article for any woman or girl that smokes or is considering taking up the habit. Digging Deeper Historically, women have smoked less than men, but certainly not to the point of…