Abigail Adams is considered by historians to be in the top three First Ladies. She is one of only two women who were mothers of a President and wives of a President. The other is Barbara Bush. Abigail was one of the best educated First Ladies relative to women Read more…
Cartoon characters can go to war to boost morale or for propaganda purposes. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Popeye, but the biggest star was Donald Duck. Disney was happy to make cartoons supporting the war effort. It was determined to go with Donald over Mickey Mouse because of Donald’s Read more…
The largest example of sex slavery and government condoned human trafficking took place before and during WWII. Starting in 1932 in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The Japanese army, with the knowledge of the government, instituted a policy of providing women for the Japanese troops to decrease the wanton Read more…
The Pax Romana ended in 180 with the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Good Emperors. The next emperor was far from good. Commodus has a bad reputation among historians. The public knows he was a bad emperor because of the movie “Gladiator”. While not as dastardly Read more…
One of the greatest warriors of the Middle Ages died an embarrassing death by way of a crossbow bolt fired by a peasant. Not exactly the way Richard the Lion-heart envisioned his death. King Richard I of England had lived the life of a legend. The second son of Read more…
When Great Britain went to war with Germany, Nicholas Alkemade gave up his gardening job to enlist in the Royal Air Force. He became a tail gunner on an Avro Lancaster. On his 15th mission, his bomber (called Werewolf) bombed Berlin the night of March 24, 1944. On the Read more…
Vasily Zaitsev was born on March 23, 1915 to a peasant family in the Ural Mountains of Russia. As a boy, his grandfather taught him how to hunt deer and wolves. At age 12, he brought home his first wolf. He had killed it with a single shot 20-gauge Read more…
Stephen Decatur was the most lauded American sailor since John Paul Jones. In 1798, he entered the US Navy as a midshipman on the USS Constitution. In a year, the had risen to Lieutenant. In 1804, he was in the Mediterranean as part of a fleet that was at Read more…
Napoleon sold Louisiana because of mosquitoes. In 1802, he sent an army led by his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to take control of New Orleans and open up a wave of French settlement. Oh, and by the way, how about stopping off in Haiti to put down that pesky Read more…
In the late 1700’s, England began its love affair with tea. Most of the tea was imported from China. The British were so obsessed with the beverage that the fast “clipper’ ships were invented to get the freshest tea leaves back to the home country. The famous Cutty Sark Read more…