A Brief History On February 14th, many of our readers celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day, a day associated with the martyrdom of the famous saint who was allegedly sentenced by a Roman emperor to be beaten with clubs and beheaded for refusing to renounce Christianity.  The execution possibly occurred on February 14, 269.  Valentine’s brutal demise is but one of numerous unusual deaths that are covered on History and Headlines.  This article will be unlike most every other article on our site, because it will be periodically updated to provide a comprehensive, albeit not exhaustive, list of history’s more unusual deaths.…

A Brief History On February 13, 1945, bombers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the American Air Force (USAAF) struck the eastern German city of Dresden, a city so beautiful it was once known as the “Florence on the Elbe,” incinerating tens of thousands of people. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the Allies decisively beating the military forces of Nazi Germany on all fronts, including in the air. The British were particularly bitter about the destruction and death caused to British cities and civilians at the hands of Germany’s Luftwaffe (air force) early in the war and then again…

A Brief History On February 13, 2004, astronomers discovered that a white dwarf star known as BPM37093 is actually the largest diamond yet discovered in the universe! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find our great gem in the constellation Centaurus, about 50 light years away. White dwarf stars are now known to consist largely of crystallized carbon, which we know better as diamond!  With a mass of 11 x 10 to the 29th power in U.S. pounds, the pulsating orb has been described as being 10 billion trillion trillion carats by the television show Modern Marvels (in a program about carbon), making it a…

A Brief History On February 12, 2004, toy producer Mattel announced that the iconic American doll Barbie had called it quits with her longtime boyfriend Ken! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find a country (or world) of ‘tween and teenaged girls shocked to find Barbara Millicent Roberts (Barbie) ending her 42-year relationship with Ken Carson in order to pursue Blaine, an Australian surfer. (She thought he was a real doll!) The Barbie craze started just about immediately in 1959 when she was introduced as an 11 ½-inch blond or brunette bombshell of a doll.  One main attraction of the Barbie doll…

A Brief History On February 11, 1968, African-American garbage collection and sewer workers in Memphis, Tennessee went on strike, prompted by the horrible death of two garbage men crushed in the back of a garbage truck. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find a racially divided city during an era of civil rights protests, riots, laws being changed and important court decisions.  The status quo was under assault! The two garbage men crushed in the garbage-compacting truck had taken shelter there from the rain when the compactor was activated, the operator not knowing the men were back there.  Incredibly, city rules allowed garbage…