A Brief History On August 22nd, 1902, Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl was born in Berlin, Germany.  Thirty years later she would meet Adolf Hitler, the man who helped her become the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century, but that association would nearly destroy her as well. Digging Deeper A talented teenager, Leni (pronounced “Lay-Nee”) was enrolled in dance and ballet classes.  She gained a reputation on the Berlin dance circuit and became a popular entertainer.  Injuries to her feet and knees, however, threatened the future of her dancing career, so she transitioned into acting.  She went on to have a prolific run as…

A Brief History On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an employee of the Louvre in Paris, stole perhaps the most famous painting in the world, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  The theft created an international stir, and when the thief was caught two years later as he attempted to sell the painting to an Italian museum, he was treated as a national hero in Italy.  He only served six months in jail.  Every once in a while a famous or important object is stolen, or the circumstances of a theft make the crime notable.  Here 10 of the most notorious…

A Brief History On August 21, 1897, Ransom Eli Olds founded the car company that became the first assembly line producer of automobiles in the world.  Many people think it was Henry Ford that invented the moving assembly line for automobile production, and of course he did make major strides in that direction, but Ransom Eli Olds was the first. Digging Deeper For the next 107 years, Oldsmobile was known as a company that made upscale, comfortable cars and even produced some “muscle” cars along the way.  Officially called Olds Automobiles, the name was quickly shorted to Oldsmobile. Born in Geneva,…

A Brief History On August 20, 1940, communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico by agents of Joseph Stalin.  The murder weapon was an ice axe, not something you usually see in Mexico City!  People have been killing other people since Cain slew his own brother Abel, and they have gotten quite creative at it in the meantime.  This article lists 10 of the more unusual murder weapons or techniques employed over the years, for example, back when the author of this article was a police officer, he investigated a murder in which a son killed his father by purposely dropping an air…

A Brief History As of August 20, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported a total of 2,615 suspected cases and 1,427 deaths (1,528 cases and 844 deaths being laboratory confirmed) in an epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) that is ongoing in West Africa.  The outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013, after which it spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. Digging Deeper Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop, which leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.…