A Brief History On November 30, 2005, John Sentamu was given the title 97th Archbishop of York, making him the first Black (of sub-Saharan African origin) Archbishop in the Church of England. Digging Deeper With this event taking place so recently, it can be clearly seen that normalization of integrating people of diverse backgrounds into British society is no less trying than seamlessly integrating people of all backgrounds in the United States, a country often referred to as “The Melding Pot” (or sometimes “Melting Pot). Modern European countries, especially ones with far flung former colonies such as Britain are by…

A Brief History On November 29, 1961, the US space agency, NASA, launched Mercury-Atlas 5, the first mission to send an American into orbit around the Earth in space. Russian Yuri Gagarin had already orbited the Earth, and 2 American astronauts had made sub-orbital space flights, but the time was right for the US to make the big step into orbital flight. Digging Deeper The specially trained “astronaut” chosen for this historic flight was Enos, a chimpanzee that had been bought by NASA from the Miami Rare Bird Farm in 1960. Enos had been subjected to over 1250 hours of…

A Brief History On November 28, 1893, the women of New Zealand became the first women in the world to vote in a national election. Of course, women had voted in local and regional elections before this date, but never in a nationwide election. Digging Deeper Women in democratic countries had long, but largely fruitlessly, campaigned for the right to vote (suffrage), especially since 1804 when the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was founded in Berlin, Germany. By the late 19th Century the Women’s Suffrage movement was growing throughout the civilized world, and with it demands for other Civil Rights and…

A Brief History On November 27, 1835, two Englishmen were hanged for the crime of sodomy (Section 15, Offences Against the Person Act of 1828) and a third man was convicted of being an accessory, receiving a sentence of 14 years “penal transportation.” (Not to be confused with “penile transportation!” Penal transportation means being hauled off to a penal colony.) The law the men were charged under had replaced the Buggery Act of 1533. Digging Deeper James Pratt (age 30) and John Smith (age 40) were allegedly engaged in intimate homosexual acts when the building’s landlord and the landlord’s wife…

A Brief History On November 26, 1883, at the age of 86, Sojourner Truth, perhaps the greatest African-American woman advocate of Civil Rights died of natural causes, ending one of if not the greatest life of fighting for African-American rights. Digging Deeper Born a slave in 1797 New York as Isabella Baumfree, Truth grew up speaking only Dutch, and was sold with a flock of sheep for $100 in 1806.  Her new master was cruel and harsh, never hesitating to beat young “Belle” with sticks. Luckily, Belle was again sold in 1808 ($105, inflation it seems), her new owner selling…