A Brief History On April 26, 1336, famed Italian scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca (better known as Petrarch) ascended Mont Ventoux, a mountain in the Provence region of southern France. Digging Deeper Petrarch is famous for much more than mountain climbing.  Often considered the founder of Humanism, his rediscovery of Cicero’s letters is also often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.  Petrarch is additionally acknowledged as the first to develop the concept of the “Dark Ages” existing between the Classical Era of Greece and Rome and his own era of Renaissance. A true “Renaissance man”, this polymath also traveled widely in Europe, served…

A Brief History On April 25, 404 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.), Lysander’s Spartan armies defeated the Athenians and the war finally ended. Digging Deeper The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.  The war dragged on for nearly three decades and expanded beyond Greece to as far away as Sicily with neither side apparently able to win a decisive, war-ending battle, at least until the skillful Spartan general Lysander (died 395 B.C.) entered the fray. Unlike some of his predecessors, the new Spartan general, Lysander,…

A Brief History On April 24, 1184 B.C., at least according to traditionalists, the city of Troy fell to Greek invaders, thus bringing about the end of the epic Trojan War that began some ten years earlier in 1194 B.C. Digging Deeper The story of this war has been repeated and altered many times since whatever actually occurred in history.  A consistent element of the ever-evolving story, however, is that it all began with perhaps the most beautiful woman of her era: Helen of Troy. Before the war began, the beautiful Helen was married to King Menelaus of Sparta, brother…

A Brief History On April 23, 1516, the region of Bavaria, a region world famous for their wonderful beer, signed on to the Reinheitsgebot, the laws in German and former Holy Roman Empire districts that regulate the ingredients and purity of beer. Digging Deeper Although versions of this law were made as early as 1487, the 1516 Bavarian version signed in Ingolstadt is the most famous and influential of the Reinheitsgebot (meaning “purity order”) and was campaigned by Bavaria for adoption across Germany as the various German states unified in the 19th Century. The law allows for only water, hops…

A Brief History On April 22, 1944, the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II (CBI) was the scene of the first ever use of a helicopter in a combat zone. The United States had deployed the Sikorsky R-4 variants to the theater to assist with the recovery of downed airmen, a role helicopters would become synonymous with. Digging Deeper Recognizing the versatility of the helicopter, the R-4’s in the theater were quickly given other missions such as ferrying vital spare parts to remote locations, rescuing sailors from sunken ships, reconnaissance, and medical evacuation. The R-4 was a two seat piston…