A Brief History On May 7, 1937, while Europe watched the prelude to World War II develop during the Spanish Civil War, the German “volunteer” Condor Legion was deployed with the Heinkel He-51 biplane fighter, an anachronism already obsolete when it was built. More like a relic of World War I, that is exactly the opposition the He-51 first had in the Nieuport biplane fighters flown by the Spanish Republican Air Force. Digging Deeper Monoplanes and all metal planes were definitely not unknown when the He-51 made its combat debut, but the older fabric covered fuselage and wings, upper and…

A Brief History On May 6, 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning any further immigration of Chinese workers to the United States for the next 10 years. This Act followed previous agreements imposed on China, the Burlingame Treaty of 18689 and the Angell Treaty of 1880 that also sought to limit Chinese immigration to the US. It seems xenophobia was alive and “well” even back then! Digging Deeper The Chinese Exclusion Act was supposed to last 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 by the Geary Act of 1892, which was made “permanent”…

A Brief History On May 5, 2017, as we celebrate Cinco de Mayo (and we do here, believe me!), we would like to expose what we think are 5 of the best and 5 of the worst television theme songs of all time.  Despite some of the songs having some popularity, the cloying, smarmy, sappy nature of some of them either makes us want to go to sleep or they are so overly sweet we gag.  Others are exciting or have become iconic TV music, even major radio hits.  (Maybe next time premium television such as HBO, Showtime and Starz…

A Brief History On May 4, 1894, educator Charles Babcock, superintendent of Oil City, Pennsylvania schools, established “Bird Day” on May 4 in order to advance the celebration and conservation of our feathered friends. Digging Deeper Other “Bird Days” include International Bird Day (April 13) and International Migratory Bird Day (second Saturday in May, or May 13 this year).  The 2017 theme is Stopover Sites: Helping Birds Along the Way. As birds are extremely important to the environment and to the welfare of mankind, we will take a moment to recognize some of their important contributions to the ecology.  For…

A Brief History On May 3, 2017, France is facing an upcoming contentious and momentous election that largely revolves around the national character of the country and the issue of immigration, especially Muslim immigration in the wake of terrorist incidents. Digging Deeper Emmanuel Macron, born 1977, is running for President of France on a secular and liberal platform that is pro-immigration (open door policy) and pro-European Union.  His opponent, conservative Marine le Pen is running on a nationalistic platform against accepting further Muslim refugees from the Middle East and with an eye for pulling the country out of the European…