A Brief History On May 10, 1865, Union troops ambushed, shot and captured infamous Confederate raider William Quantrill.  Quantrill had terrorized the Union and Union sympathizers during the Civil War (not so “civil!”) and was perhaps the most famous of the “Bushwhackers” as these guerilla raiders were known.  Quantrill died 4 weeks later at a Union prison camp, paralyzed from the chest down.  He was only 27 years old. Digging Deeper Throughout history, men and women have conducted raids, and some have become famous or infamous for their raids.  Here we list 10 of the most notorious.  (Note: The order…

A Brief History On May 10, 1865, President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, was captured by Federal troops in Georgia. Many Americans in the North consider Jeff Davis to be the worst kind of traitor, while many Americans in the old Confederacy drive around with bumper stickers that read “My President is Jeff Davis.” Whether someone is a freedom fighter or a traitor is relative depending on the perspective of the observer, which is why JD does not make the list. Others have been accused and even executed as traitors, such as Mata Hari, who turned out…

A Brief History On May 10, 1972, the mighty Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka, ‘Warthog’) made its first flight.  Designed from the start to stem the tide of the Red Army’s potential invasion of Western Europe, the A-10 was built to do 2 things: Destroy enemy armor formations and survive battle damage. Digging Deeper Not designed to fly fast, high, look good or carry sophisticated systems, the A-10 is built with mass quantities of armor protecting the pilot (a titanium “bathtub” surrounds him) and the airplane’s systems.  The twin jet engines are located aft and above the fuselage away…

A Brief History On May 9, 1926, Richard E. Byrd claimed to have made a flight over the North Pole, making him (the navigator) and his pilot the first men to have achieved that distinction. Doubters surfaced soon afterwards, and the 1996 release of Byrd’s diary clearly showed how he had falsified data to claim he had made the trip when in reality he had turned back without achieving his goal. People lie. Not all the time, but often enough and about big enough subjects that we have compiled a list of 10 big whoppers for you. Digging Deeper 10.…

A Brief History On May 9, 1961, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, shocked Americans by declaring commercial television programming to be a “vast wasteland.”  And you thought TV today was lousy! Digging Deeper Appointed as Chairman of the FCC by President Kennedy, Newton was giving his first speech in office to the National Association of Broadcasters, not exactly the audience likely to agree with him.  Minow went on to rail against all the game shows, slapstick comedies, phony portrayals of family life and the violence, which though tame by our modern standards, must have been shocking…