A Brief History On December 19,1961, the armed forces of India completed Operation Vijay, a land, sea and air assault against the Portuguese enclaves on Indian soil in the Goa region. The mini-war only lasted 2 days, but it ended 451 years of Portuguese colonialism in India. Digging Deeper Portugal had grabbed a piece of India during the age of exploration when European colonial powers were conducting land grabs all over the world. Portugal had established bases on the Indian sub-continent in the area of Goa and nearby regions, a modest holding by colonial standards, and Goa today is India’s…
Read More
A Brief History What does being a king of Macedonia, a hero, a humanitarian, and a maniac have in common? Those qualities came together to breathe life into King Alexander. He was extremely “Great” in many regards. To analyze these characteristics of Alexander of Great, one must experience an abundance of primary, secondary, and visual sources. Additionally, one must take a step back and view the actions and consequences of Alexander the Great with an open mind. This analysis must be done while paying close attention to the positive and negative interpretations of this historical figure’s life. His life includes…
A Brief History On December 18, 1982, arguably the greatest combat pilot in German military history died of a stroke in Rosenheim, Bavaria, West Germany. Hans-Ulrich Rudel is credited with shooting down only 9 enemy airplanes, and yet eclipses such German legendary aces as Baron Manfred von Richthofen (80 aerial kills, #1 during World War II) and Erich Hartman, history’s all-time leading ace with 353 air to air kills without ever being shot down or forced to land by enemy airplanes (all during World War II). Digging Deeper Rudel performed his heroics mainly at the stick of the JU-87 Stuka…
A Brief History On December 17, 2009, a large but largely rusted tub of a ship, the MV Danny F II, sunk off the coast of Lebanon taking with her 44 humans (accounts vary with numbers of people from 39 to 47 rescued) and (as far as we can determine) a record amount of domestic animals. Digging Deeper The doomed ship was built in 1976 as a car ferry, but had been converted to carrying bulk live animals for slaughter, a practice long opposed by animal rights activists. A tad over 664 feet long and over 92 feet wide, the…
A Brief History On December 16, 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama passed the Great Fish River in what is now South Africa on his voyage around the Southern tip of Africa to reach India by sea, a previously not accomplished feat by European sailors. Digging Deeper Europeans named this river The “Great Fish” River to differentiate it from The “Nambian Fish” River. (You would think ALL rivers are “Fish” River!) The Great Fish was previously called Rio do Infante after the European that first visited the river in the 1480s (Joao Infante). The main tributary of the Great Fish…