A Brief History On September 9, 2015, a new record was broken! On this historic date, Queen Elizabeth II (r. 1952-present) became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. She has now reigned for 63 years and seven months, surpassing the record set by her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901). Digging Deeper Queen Elizabeth II (born 1926) became Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms on February 6, 1952. You may be asking, “Dr. Zar, just how many other Commonwealth realms is she queen of?” Well, let me tell you: the 89-year-old monarch is actually queen of sixteen member states…
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A Brief History On September 7, 1776, American patriot Ezra Lee made the first attack by a submarine against a surface warship in history against the HMS Eagle in New York Harbor. The attack failed when the screw designed to attach an explosive mine to the side of the Eagle failed to penetrate the ship’s hull, allowing the bomb to float away and explode harmlessly. Last year on this date we list 10 Underperforming Weapons, weapons and weapon systems that did not live up to expectations though they may have had some level of limited success. Also see our articles…
A Brief History On September 6, 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr., infielder for the Baltimore Orioles, set a new major league baseball record by playing in his 2131st consecutive baseball game, breaking the record held by Lou Gehrig for 56 years. Digging Deeper Ripken played another 6 years, stretching his incredible record to 2632 games, finally retiring in 2001 after a stellar 20 year career. He had hit safely 3184 times and knocked in 1695 runs, earned 2 Gold Gloves and 2 MVP trophys. Named to the All Century Team, Ripken was a 19 time All Star, and was elected to…
A Brief History On September 5, 1725, Louis the XV, King of France, married Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczynska, the daughter of King Stanislaw I of Poland. Known as Queen (consort) Marie of France, she served in that role until her death in 1768 at the age of 65. For a whopping 43 years between Louis XIV (“The Sun King” famous for his namesake furniture style) and Louis XVI (the guy that wed Marie Antoinette and got his head lopped off) there was a Polish lady serving as Queen of France. If you did not know this, perhaps you are…
A Brief History On an unknown date in 324 BC, the Macedonian (Greek) King Alexander the Great arranged about 80 weddings in the Persian city of Susa between the daughters of Persian nobles and Greeks of high office. An astute judge of culture, Alexander regularly acknowledged a conquered people’s customs and culture and attempted to show respect and acceptance for their ways in order to better incorporate the new lands into his empire. Of course, Alexander also meant to further Greek culture into conquered lands as well. Digging Deeper Alexander had already married Roxana (aka Roxanne or Roxanna) the beautiful…