A Brief History On November 20, 1861, certain representatives of some Kentucky counties calling themselves the Confederate Government of Kentucky seceded from the Union of the United States of America. In honor of this action, a star on the Confederate States of America flag represented the Confederate State of Kentucky. Digging Deeper Well, well, well! Not so fast! The actual legitimate government of Kentucky had no such ideas about seceding from the Union and officially Kentucky, although a slave state, did not secede and join the Confederacy. Obviously sentiments in this “border” state were divided, and officially the State considered…

A Brief History On November 19, 1703, one of History’s most celebrated prisoners died while still in prison, an unidentified man known to us as “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Ironically (even the word “ironically” is ironic in this case!), the mask kept over the prisoner’s face was black velvet, not iron. The iron part of the story came from a work by Voltaire in 1771 when he claimed the mask was an iron one. Voltaire also claimed the man was an illegitimate brother of the French King, Louis XIV. Novelist Alexandre Dumas (he of The Three Musketeers fame)…

A Brief History On November 18, 1993, the US House of Representatives passed the North American Free Trade Agreement that had been negotiated by President George HW Bush in 1992. President Clinton, assuming office in January of 1993, negotiated a couple small amendments to the agreement at the behest of congressmen. Digging Deeper Negotiated by Mexico, the United States and Canada, the measure replaced the previous trade agreement between the US and Canada known as the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. In Canada, most political representatives were against the NAFTA pact, but since the opposition was split between 2 groups…

A Brief History On November 17, 1894, the murderous career of HH Holmes, one of the first modern documented serial killers, came to an end when he was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts. A thoroughly evil man, Holmes not only was a killer, he was also a bigamist, kidnapper, and con artist. In fact, he actually had a “house of horrors” hotel built specifically so he could murder people and dispose of the bodies covertly!  His actual death toll is unknown, but estimates as high as 200 seem possible. Digging Deeper The World’s Fair Hotel located in Chicago, Illinois, was built…

A Brief History On November 16, 1974, a radio signal was sent from Earth to the star cluster known as M13 in an attempt to communicate with whatever intelligent life forms may exist in that area of the Universe. The single message was sent from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico (USA), via FM (frequency modulated) radio waves. Incredibly optimistic of the (questionable intelligence) people that arranged this message, the target stars are 25,000 light years away! Digging Deeper A message of just under 3 minutes duration consisting of 1679 binary digits (210 bytes) at a power of 1000…