On Feb. 27, 1933 the Reichstag (German Parliament) building caught fire and was substantially damaged. Hitler and the Nazis blamed it on the communists and in order to avert a communist takeover, Hitler was given dictatorial powers. But was the fire actually set by the Nazis? By 1933, Read more…
John Kellogg was born on Feb. 26, 1852. He was a Seventh-Day Adventist. They believed the Second Coming was near, so education was a waste of time. He only had a few years of formal schooling, but he read a lot and ended up going to medical school and Read more…
Cathay Williams was born in 1844. Her father was a freed slave and her mother was enslaved. She grew up to be a house slave on a plantation in Missouri. When the Civil War broke out, her area was taken by the Union Army and she became contraband. This Read more…
Iwo Jima was invaded on Feb. 21, 1945. The going was tough, but two days later the volcano Mount Suribachi was conquered. Although the fighting continued for weeks, the taking of the mountain was symbolic of eventual victory. Recognizing this, First Lieutenant Harold Schrier was ordered to lead a Read more…
Sophie Scholl was born on May 9, 1921. He father was a liberal politician who was mayor of her home town. They were a middle-class family and she was well-educated. She and her siblings were seduced by Nazism. Her brother Hans joined the Hitler Youth and she joined the Read more…
Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965 as he prepared to give a speech to his Organization of Afro-American Unity at a ballroom in New York City. His father had been killed when he was six by white supremacists. Malcolm Little grew up to be a petty criminal Read more…
One of the most daring exploits in the history of the U.S. Navy occurred on Feb. 16, 1804. In 1801, the U.S. began the First Barbary War against the pirate (called “corsairs”) states of the Barbary coast of the Mediterranean. The new nation had been paying tribute (bribes) to Read more…
In the period between his election and his inauguration, there was an attempt on FDR’s life on Feb. 15, 1933. (This was before inauguration day was moved to January.) He had landed in Miami after a cruise of the Bahamas and was at a meeting with the Mayor of Chicago, Read more…
Today is the day we acknowledge as the birthday of the greatest African-American of the 19th Century. When the historian Carter Woodson inaugurated Negro History Week in 1926, he had it coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Woodson placed Douglass’ birthday on Feb. 14. He was Read more…
On Feb. 13, 1542, the one wife of Henry VIII who was guilty was beheaded. Catherine Howard is forever known as “the wife who cheated on Henry VIII”. Since her death, historians have been torn between depicting her as anything between lusty whore and clueless vixen. Which is the Read more…