A Brief History On December 16, 1863, after bungling the defense of Chattanooga, Confederate Army General Braxton Bragg was replaced as Commander of the Army of Tennessee by General Johnston. Nevertheless, a major US Army base was named after Bragg. Digging Deeper Many other American places have been named after people infamous for their failures, including: Fort Polk, Louisiana, named after Confederate General Leonidas Polk, a political appointee with no significant military experience and poor performance during the Civil War. Fort Polk is now Fort Johnson. Custer, South Dakota and Custer City, Oklahoma, named after US Army Lt. Col. George…
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on December 15th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On December 15, 1890, legendary Hunkpapa Lakota (aka, Teton Sioux) leader and holy man, Sitting Bull, was killed by Indian Agency Police at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the Grand River area of South Dakota. On December 15, 1956, Elvis Presley gave the last of 50 performances on Louisiana Hayride, a live Shreveport, Louisiana radio show. On December 15, 1967, the “Mothman”…
A Brief History On December 15, 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was finished with an 11 year project that cost $27 million to make sure it kept leaning, a fix that did not fix the original problem! Digging Deeper Of course, the Pisans were in no hurry to correct the lean of their eponymous tower, as the Leaning Tower is an enormous tourist draw, pulling in five million visitors each year. The 185 foot high tower made of marble and stone took 199 years to build, and was intended as the bell tower for the Pisa Cathedral. The famous…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on December 14th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On December 14, 835, Emperor Wenzong of the Chinese Tang Dynasty was given the news that “sweet dew” had formed on a pomegranate tree outside a military headquarters, a sign of divine favor for the Emperor. On December 14, 1836, a war between the States ended, but one you may not be familiar with. On December 14, 1909, the last paving brick…
A Brief History On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company continued a trend of corporate mergers and acquisitions that are killing competition in many markets when they announced the deal to acquire the 20th Century Fox movie studio for over $52 billion. Digging Deeper Way back in 1890, Congress realized the problem with only a few companies owning too much of a market, and passed the Sherman Act, the first major anti-trust law in the US. President Teddy Roosevelt built on a reputation as a “trust buster” to protect competitive commerce, but his successor, President William Taft, proved to…