A Brief History On January 1, 1773, the all familiar hymn “Amazing Grace” was performed for the first time at a church service in England. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find what is generally considered to be the most familiar, best loved, all around greatest hymn based on music of unknown origin. The words, however, came from John Newton, a cleric who wrote them years before with the inspiration coming from his time on a slave ship threatened by fierce weather.  The prospect of imminent death elicited the beautiful words we know today, and in them he claims to have…

A Brief History On January 1, 2021, we take New Year’s Day to reflect on the fact that January 1st, although it is now celebrated as the beginning of the new year each year in virtually all of the western civilizations of the world today, is by no means the universal harbinger of a new year. Digging Deeper We find that this particular day was not always when people celebrated the new year in Europe as well as other parts of the world.  Various European countries started using January 1st as New Year’s Day in a hap-hazard manner between the…

A Brief History On December 31, 1993, transgender person Brandon Teena was raped and murdered.  Teena’s tragic life and death served as the inspiration for the 1999 major motion picture Boys Don’t Cry, starring Hillary Swank. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find 21-year-old biologically female Brandon Teena living as a man in Nebraska. Having been born a girl and named Teena Brandon, Brandon exhibited transgender tendencies as an adolescent and despite her mother’s denial and consternation continued to progress that way through high school, ending up expelled only 3 days before graduation. Living as a man under the transposed name,…

A Brief History On December 30, 1977, serial killer Ted Bundy escaped from jail and went on to continue his killing spree. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find this murderous psychopath had actually escaped once before!  In June of 1977, having been jailed for assault and kidnapping (getting a sentence of only 1 to 15 years) Bundy was facing a murder charge and escaped from a window at the courthouse in Aspen, Colorado, running free for 6 days before being recaptured. The second escape was from an actual jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado despite possibly only having to serve a…

A Brief History On December 29, 1916, possibly the most cracked clergyman of all time finally met his doom, having been poisoned, shot, and drowned, thereby rivaling Blackbeard for the claim of bearded bad-ass who most went out “like a boss”! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the last royal court of Russia in the middle of turbulent times indeed, tangled in the morass of the First World War (or, at the time, The Great War) and the country on the brink of revolution. In addition to the horrible political situation, the royal family (Romanov) of Czar Nicholas II had…