A Brief History On October 9, 1966, the war torn nation of South Viet Nam was the scene of not one, but two notable massacres you may never have heard of.  While much scorn has been heaped on alleged massacres and atrocities by Americans, by the forces of South Viet Nam, by the Viet Cong, and by the North Vietnamese Army, these massacres were committed by another entity entirely. Digging Deeper On this fateful day, the Republic of Korea (ROK) forces (aka South Korean) allied with the US and South Viet Nam perpetrated massacres at separate locations, Binh Tai and…

A Brief History “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story of speculative fiction by American author Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859), contained in his collection of essays and short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819-1820).  Although written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during the Halloween season.  To that end, the short story is an excellent example of the creation of American culture in the early 19th century! Digging Deeper: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”…

A Brief History On October 8, 2013, a 66-year-old Denver, Colorado man and his 35-year-old female partner were accused of felonious child abuse in a sickening case of neglect and mistreatment.  The four boys, ages two to six, were malnourished, did not speak or have any sort of education and were kept in filthy conditions, with cat feces and urine throughout the insect-infested house.  Only able to communicate through grunts to the horrified child authorities, the filthy children could not even describe their mistreatment.  Unfortunately, police have to confront terrible crimes like this on a regular basis, a depressing and…

A Brief History On June 24, 1398, the Hongwu Emperor of China died.  Soon after this emperor’s death, one of his sons, Zhu Di (1360-1424), began an ultimately successful rebellion to seize the throne from the Hongwu Emperor’s teenage successor, a nephew of Zhu Di.  By 1402, Zhu Di’s nephew was dead and Zhu Di, now known as the Yongle Emperor, began a reign that has gone down in history as one of the most famous and significant in all of Chinese history.  During his reign of over twenty years, the Yongle Emperor’s famed eunuch admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) conducted…

A Brief History On October 6, 1977, the Soviet aircraft design bureau, Mikoyan-Guryevich, flew their MiG-29 supersonic fighter for the first time.  In service since 1983, over 1600 of these highly capable air superiority and fighter bomber jets have been built, and incredibly (for a fighter aircraft) the plane is still in production. Digging Deeper Conceived as the lower end mix of fighter jets, similar to the American F-16 vis a vis the F-15, the MiG-29 is the smaller, cheaper half of the Su-27/MiG-29 mix of Soviet (now Russian) fighters.  (Note: Twice as many MiG-29’s have been built as have…