A Brief History On September 20, 1835, Brazilian rebels captured Porto Alegre, starting a rebellion that lasted almost 10 years called The Ragamuffin War.  The longest war against the Imperial Brazilian government (and second bloodiest), the Ragamuffin war raged between southern, rural “Ragamuffins” or “Gauchos” (cowboys) that wanted a Republican form of government against the northern portion of the country. Digging Deeper Despite an offer of amnesty and peace in 1840, the rebels continued the fight even though no realistic chance of winning existed.  The famed Italian revolutionary and uniter, Giuseppe Garibaldi, came to assist the rebels in 1839 and…

A Brief History On September 20, 1982, the television show The $10,000 Pyramid was renamed The $25,000 Pyramid, with its host being American Bandstand and New Year’s Eve impresario Dick Clark.  Upon Dick’s death in 2012,  CBS reported that his estate was in the  “hundreds of millions.”  His third and final wife (of 35 years), Kari Wigton, can therefor be said to have hit her own jackpot by hooking up with such a successful Dick.  Here we list lucky ladies who can proudly claim they had or have their own “Dick.” Digging Deeper 10. Kari Wigton, Dick Clark. Clark’s previous marriages had lasted…

A Brief History On September 16, 2001, 83 year old B-movie producer Samuel Z. Arkoff died, bringing an end to an era of movies so bad they were good.  Born in Iowa in 1918 to a Russian -Jewish family did not seem to lead to Hollywood, especially with an initial direction toward studying law (graduating from Loyola of LA with a law degree). Digging Deeper Still, Arkoff managed to find his way into the movie business, where he produced low budget, slapped together movies that almost invariably succeeded in making money.  Responsible for starting the genre of outlaw biker movie…

A Brief History On September 10, 1960, the final event of the Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy, was the scene of the first Sub-Saharan African (Black) to win an Olympic Gold Medal.  Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the prestigious Olympic Marathon race (about 26.2 miles long) and won it in high fashion, that is, barefoot! Digging Deeper Only 126 lbs, this slim 5’11” runner was 28 years old when he ran his historic race, and for good measure he won the Olympic Gold Medal in the Marathon in the 1964 Olympics as well.  The course of events that led…

 A Brief History On August 17, 1966, the US Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which in conjunction with the Highway Safety Act has greatly reduced traffic injuries and deaths in the United States. Digging Deeper In 1966, traffic deaths in the US reached a staggering 50,894, or 25.9 traffic deaths per 100,000 population, both records at the time.  The creation of the National Highway Safety Bureau (later changed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and implementation of safety measures concerning the building and marking of roads, the performance and safety features of cars, and…