A Brief History On July 8, 1898, gangster and con artist Jefferson R. “Soapy” Smith was killed in a shootout with a vigilance committee on the Juneau, Alaska wharves.  Soapy got his name from a soap related scam he used to run, but nothing was funny about him running organized crime in Denver and other locales in Colorado and in the gold rush town of Skagway, Alaska. Digging Deeper Sometimes gangsters and criminals have sort of cool sounding nicknames, such as “Iron Mike” Tyson (a shot at the miscreant boxer, a convicted rapist), Sammy “The Bull” Gravano (a Gambino Family…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological timeline of key events that occurred during the Age of Discovery. Digging Deeper On October 10, 1492, the famous first voyage of Christopher Columbus and his small fleet of three ships almost came to an end right at the point of “discovering” the New World. On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus, the Italian adventurer sailing into the unknown in the name of the Spanish Crown, landed in the Bahamas, the landing that became known as the “discovery” of America (or, “The New World” if you prefer). On March 15, 1493, Christopher Columbus made his triumphant return…

A Brief History On July 7, 1928, bread that was presliced, wrapped in paper or cellophane, and sold like that to the consumer in bakeries and grocery stores first made its debut.  The bread slicer was invented by Iowan Otto Rohwedder, and the race to sell sliced bread was on. Digging Deeper The Chillocothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri claims to have sold the first such bread under its “Kleen Maid Sliced Bread” brand.  Battle Creek, Michigan, also claims to be the first place the bread was sold, but without as much documentation. When Wonder Bread began selling sliced bread nationwide in 1930,…

A Brief History On July 7, 1985, Boris Becker of Germany became the youngest Wimbledon tennis champion by winning the tournament at the age of only 17.  Becker went on to win at Wimbledon 2 more times, and he won a total of 9 of the “Grand Slam” tennis events, as well as earning an Olympic gold medal in 1992 (doubles). Digging Deeper Michael Chang bested Becker’s record as the youngest winner of a Grand Slam tennis event by taking the French Open title in 1989, also at age 17 but almost 4 months younger. Mats Wilander was also 17…

A Brief History On July 7, 1456, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) was acquitted of heresy.  Unfortunately, the acquittal came 25 years after she was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake.  Every so often someone gets railroaded into being executed, imprisoned, or discredited, often to the point of having their life and reputation ruined only to be vindicated later, sometimes even becoming a hero.  Here we list 10 such people.  (So many people have been condemned to death or life in prison that turned out to be innocent you would need a book to list them.) Digging Deeper…