A Brief History On February 11, 2013, the sitting Pope of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, announced his resignation from the papacy.  As no pope had voluntarily resigned in about 500 years, this news shocked the entire world, not just the Catholic world. Digging Deeper Born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria, he first became a priest, then an archbishop, then a cardinal before ascending to the papacy in 2005 when he succeeded Pope John Paul II.  At one point fairly liberal, Benedict became much more conservative starting in 1968.  At his resignation at age 86, he claimed old age and infirmity (“lack of strength of mind and body”). As…

This Just In! Over the past month, we have published articles noting failed drug tests of some of mixed-martial arts’ (MMA) legends.  Notable fighters, including fighters who have won and held memorable championship titles, such as Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and Nick Diaz have sullied their reputations with their actions. Digging Deeper Now, news has come out that Jon Fitch, a fighter who has competed over thirty times in his career, failed a drug test taken before he fought on December 23, 2014 for the World Series of Fighting’s welterweight championship.  The results of the test have only been revealed…

A Brief History On February 10, 1942, the first Gold Record ever was awarded to Glenn Miller for his hit song “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” Glenn Miller’s famous train had chugged its way along to sales of 1.2 million, and, as would become the practice, the “gold record” was awarded to him by the company that had produced the record (in this case, RCA Victor).  Later, in 1958, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began an industry-wide practice of awarding gold records for sales of 1 million copies of a single.  Starting n 1968, albums were awarded a gold record…

A Brief History At the suggestion that Kim Kardashian deserved a spot in the History and Headlines’ series on women famous for being naked, the author paused.  Yes, Kim’s first taste of fame was the result of the leak of her sex tape video, however, that had already been done by Pamela Anderson.  To include Kim for this reason would mean that Paris Hilton and many others would have to be included as well.  Instead, perhaps a list of people who have been on sex tapes would be more appropriate, but those are commonplace across the internet and need no…

A Brief History On February 9, 2001, the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Greeneville (SSN 772) accidentally sank the Japanese training fishing vessel Ehime Maru on board which were some high school students. Digging Deeper The Greeneville had been conducting maneuvers of the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii with guests aboard, mostly big-money donors to the Battleship Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor.  In the course of conducting an emergency main ballast tank blow and ascent, the nuclear sub came up underneath the Ehime Maru in a terrific collision that smashed the hapless fishing boat and sank it within 10 minutes.  Japanese losses were 9…