A Brief History On September 1, 1715, King Louis XIV of France died after having ruled for 72 years, the longest reign of a king or queen of any major European country.  Many Frenchmen were born and died during his time on the throne and never knew any other monarch.  Here 10 of the longest-reigning leaders of countries or other institutions are listed, in no particular order. Digging Deeper 10. Howard Stern, “King of All Media,” 1986-Present. Howard became the soi-disant (self-proclaimed) “King of all Media” in response to Michael Jackson’s claim to be the “King of Pop.”  Stern went national in 1986 after having been fired from…

A Brief History On September 1st, 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, was found dead in her cage by her keepers at the Cincinnati Zoo. Digging Deeper Now extinct, passenger pigeons were once the most abundant bird in the entire world.  Native to North America, it is estimated that there were 3-5 billion of them when Europeans first arrived.  Today their closest living relative is the smaller mourning dove. Their demise was caused by deforestation and the commercialization of their meat.  Losing more and more of their natural habitat, they were easy game for hunters. Their numbers already dwindling…

A Brief History On August 31st, 1997, Princess Diana died in a Paris hospital after being involved in an accident in which the car she had been riding in had been chased down and harassed by paparazzi before crashing into a wall and pillar of an underground tunnel.  Digging Deeper This article discusses less the actual circumstances of the crash and its aftermath and more the impact Diana’s death had on the author of the article. Just a teenager at the time, the author had grown up with Princess Diana being omnipresent.  From the time Diana got married as the author was a baby…

A Brief History On August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan fired shots at Vladimir I. Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Soviet Union, wounding him.  Had Lenin died at this time and not six years later, history might well have been different.  The fairer sex has sometimes turned to violence throughout history, either in domestic situations, for political reasons, in war or for idealistic purposes.  Here 10 such murderous women are listed, in no particular order.   Digging Deeper 10. Fanny Kaplan, Assassin. Her real name was Feiga Roytblat, and she was Jewish socialist revolutionary in Russia.  Already in…

A Brief History On August 30, 1813, a force of about 1,000 warriors of a faction of the Creek Nation Native Americans known as the “Red Sticks” attacked Fort Mims in Alabama, killing almost all its defenders and many civilians as well.  What later became known as the Fort Mims Massacre was the worst slaughter of white settlers by Native Americans in the South and probably the second worst overall. (Only the 1791 Fort Recovery Massacre in Ohio known as St. Clair’s Defeat may have been worse.) Digging Deeper As explained above, the Red Sticks were a faction of the Creek.  Many Creek had assimilated with the white…