A Brief History On the evening of November 13, 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris, France and its northern suburb Saint-Denis.  The attacks consisted of mass shootings, suicide bombings, bombings, and hostage taking, including bombings near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.  The deadliest attack was at the Bataclan theatre where attackers took hostages and engaged in a standoff with police until it was ended on November 14, 2015. Digging Deeper At least 129 people were killed, 89 of them at the Bataclan theatre.  More than 350 people were injured by the attacks, including 99 people described as…

A Brief History On November 14, 1967, physicist Theodore Maiman, an American working for Hughes Research Laboratories, was finally granted a patent for the “optical maser” (maser: microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) device he called the Laser (laser: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), once the stuff of science fiction and now an everyday common electronic device. Digging Deeper Using a synthetic ruby to focus light pumped from a high energy source (the scientific details hurt my liberal arts head), the laser was featured in the James Bond film, Goldfinger (1964) demonstrating the powerful light’s ability to…

A Brief History On November 13, 1974, the real story of The Amityville Horror began when Ronald DeFeo, Jr. savagely murdered his entire family in the house featured in the popular horror story. Digging Deeper The house at 112 Ocean Avenue had been occupied by the DeFeo family since 1965.  The family consisted of two parents, two daughters, and three sons.  Ronald Jr. was the eldest at age 23 when he used a Marlin Model 336C lever action rifle in .35 Remington caliber to shoot each parent and all four siblings, killing them all. Ronald, or “Butch” as he was…

A Brief History On November 12, 1970, the people along the Pacific Coast of Oregon found out the answer to the question, “How many State Highway Department employees does it take to blow up a whale?”  Unfortunately, no rational people had actually asked that particular question in the first place! Digging Deeper On that memorable November day, a 45 foot long, 8 ton Sperm Whale washed up dead on an Oregon beach.  Stinky and unsightly, locals not surprisingly wanted it gone.  In Oregon, for some reason beaches are considered highways, so the nasty task of removing the whale carcass fell…

A Brief History On November 11, 1673, General Jan Sobieski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth successfully used military rockets designed by Kazimierz Siemienowicz in the Second Battle of Khotyn in the Ukraine, helping to defeat Ottoman forces.  Siemienowicz was the greatest artillery officer of his day, perhaps in history, and yet much about him is unknown. Digging Deeper Historians argue over whether Siemienowicz was of Lithuanian, Polish, or Belarusian ethnicity, as the borders and identities of countries and alliances in those days was murky and changing all the time.  Ambiguity in the personal accounts of Siemienowicz does not clarify the issue,…