©Water Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum I’m guessing that many of us remember bits of stories we heard as kids. I certainly do, and I’ve spent a little keyboard time telling you about them. I’ve mentioned Dad’s reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to us and the old Uncle Remus stories that grew up in [...]
Archive for April, 2009
Casey Jones: Engineer, Hero, Legend
Posted in Late nineteenth century (1865-1900), United States, tagged 1900, Cannonball Express, Casey Jones, Memphis, Tennessee on April 30 | Leave a Comment »
Operation Manna: A Modern-Day Miracle
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Arthur Seyss-Irquart, Avro Lancaster, Manna, Netherlands, Operation Manna, Operation Market Garden on April 29 | Leave a Comment »
The penultimate day in April of 1945 was pretty eventful. Deposed Italian strongman Benito Mussolini was now one day dead (but still hanging around), German forces were in the process of ending all fighting in Italy, and there were wedding bells (well, sort of ) ringing below the Chancellery in Berlin. Those things are pretty [...]
Cuff ‘Em and Stuff ‘Em
Posted in Civil War period (1861-1865), The Civil War (1861-1865), United States, tagged 1861, Habeas corpus, President Abraham Lincoln, President George W. Bush on April 27 | 1 Comment »
I’m no law expert, and as you read Today’s History Lesson, you’ll figure that out. We’re going to talk (for just a minute or two) about habeas corpus. It’s probably one of the most important rights given to the individual to protect him or her from government power. And it’s probably good to visit the topic, simply because [...]
Leningrad: Where Oil and Water Mixed
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Joseph Stalin, Lake Ladoga, Nikolai Baibakov, Oil, Russian Defense Committee on April 25 | Leave a Comment »
Nikolai Baibakov lived to be 98 years old. That’s a pretty uncommon occurance and, without any additional embellishment, would probably stand on its own merits. But Baibakov lived in the Soviet Union, was an important oil minister, and served under Joseph Stalin. Living to be 98 and having Stalin for a boss meant he was [...]
President Truman Gets First Taste of Manhattan
Posted in North America, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Atomic Bomb, Manhattan Project, President Harry Truman on April 24 | Leave a Comment »
At some point in your life, I’ll bet you’ve uttered a phrase that started with, “If only I was the President…”. I’ve done it…many times. But like the rest of us, I really have no idea what goes on behind the doors of the White House. There are incredible burdens that the President has to bear…burdens [...]
Oklahoma Sooners: Long-time Bane of Title-Seekers
Posted in Late nineteenth century (1865-1900), United States, tagged 1889, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, Sooners on April 22 | 1 Comment »
All you fans of college sports, have you ever thought about where the University of Oklahoma got their team name? Me neither. But when putting together a little article for today, I learned where “Sooners” originated…and then I kind of wondered why I hadn’t thought about it before. At precisely 12:00pm on April 22, 1889, the [...]
Adolf Hitler’s Last Live Show
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Adolf Hitler, Berlin, Hitler Youth, Iron Cross, Leipzig on April 20 | Leave a Comment »
April of 1945 was not a good time to be vacationing anywhere in Germany. In fact, being German and living in Germany at that time was just about the worst thing ever. They were being bombed mercilessly, shelled incessantly, and shot at constantly by the Russian army. For those that think Alexander’s day was terrible, horrible, [...]
USS Iowa’s Final Shot its Deadliest
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1989, BB-61, Explosion, USS Iowa on April 19 | 1 Comment »
I love the Iowa-class battleships. They weren’t the biggest capital ships, nor did they carry the biggest main guns and shoot the biggest shells (those honors go to Japan’s Yamato-class ships). But they were the most advanced examples of their class ever built. The Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin comprised our ultimate (and final) [...]
Doolittle Raid Does Little, Accomplishes Much
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, General James Doolittle, North American B-25 Mitchell, Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, USS Hornet on April 18 | Leave a Comment »
On April 18, 1942, Hideki Tojo was doing what millions of people today do on a regular basis…flying in an airplane. Sitting in a belly of a plane was nothing new to this career military man, but sitting in one while bearing the title of Japanese Prime Minister was. Tojo had been named to the exalted [...]
Laffey II – The Wrath of (Human) Bombs
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Divine Wind, Floating Chrysanthemum, Kamikaze, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, USS Laffey on April 16 | Leave a Comment »
Let’s talk for a couple minutes about the experience of the USS Laffey in the battle for Okinawa. As you know, Okinawa turned out to be the last major land battle of the Second World War. It was also one of the roughest, toughest engagements of the entire war. But it was also a major [...]
Sometimes It’s Not Even Who You Know
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus, Joseph Stalin, Katyn Forest, Sachsenhausen, Smolensk, Yakov Dzhugashvili on April 14 | 1 Comment »
I’ve discussed Operation Barbarossa on several different occasions, so regular readers of my musings have, at the least, a vague idea of how that massive campaign initially played out. It was the Germans running roughshod over their Russian enemy until stalling “within sight of the spires of Moscow.” On the way to Moscow was the city [...]
Apollo XIII: One of NASA’s Finest Hours
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1970, Apollo XIII, James Lovell, Moon Landing, NASA, Ron Howard on April 13 | Leave a Comment »
Since most everyone has seen Ron Howard’s excellent rendition of the failed Apollo XIII mission to the Moon, Today’s History Lesson hardly bears mentioning. But still, since the central events of that mission happened on April 13, 1970, let’s give it some due. The Apollo XIII mission began well enough on April 11th, with Tom Hanks, [...]
Eric Geist: Tom Clancy Apostle
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1947, Jack Ryan, Red Storm Entertainment, Tom Clancy on April 12 | Leave a Comment »
I first ran into Tom Clancy’s books back in college. A good friend of mine, Eric Geist, was a real fan of all things military, just like me. As we both had the same major, we spent a lot of “study” time talking about fighters, bombers, ships, and tanks. It was he who first mentioned [...]
Tambora: A Mountain-Sized Cold Front
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1815, Indonesia, Mt. Tambora, Sulfur Dioxide, Sumbawa, Volcano on April 10 | Leave a Comment »
It’s office-painting time. After more than 2 years of consideration, looking at paint chips, and walking the web checking out furniture, we pulled the trigger. I usually write out in the living room using a laptop, but it’s still connected to the hub in the office. The long and short is that, for the next [...]
The Final Battle of Bataan Ends
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Bataan Death March, Battle of Bataan, General Edward King, General Masaharu Homma, Philippine Islands on April 9 | Leave a Comment »
The fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942 was the end of the one of the most famous battles of the Second World War. It was immediately followed up by what became known as the Bataan Death March, one of the most infamous forced marches of the Second World War. U.S. and Filipino soldiers had [...]
Mussolini’s Power Play in Albania
Posted in Period between World Wars (1919-1939), tagged 1939, Abyssinia, Albania, Benito Mussolini, Italy, King Zog on April 7 | 2 Comments »
I had a couple different ideas for discussion, but the evening has conspired against me and now it’s too late to give them good attention. So I’ll choose the shortest (and laziest) topic, and pick up the more involved ones as soon as it’s April 7th again. Let’s head overseas to Albania. Albania is a small country in [...]
Yugoslavia Pays for Prince Paul Putting Pen to Paper
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1941, Belgrade, Bulgaria, Prince Paul, Tsar Boris III, Yugoslavia on April 6 | Leave a Comment »
Prince Paul. His picture there on the left makes him out to be pretty unhappy. I don’t suppose he was unhappy all his life, but the stuff we’re going to talk about today is less than pleasant. First, his cousin Alexander (the King of Yugoslavia) was assassinated in France in the mid 1930′s. And because the [...]
Washington Says “Veto!”, Starts a Trend
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1792, Pocket Veto, President Franklin Roosevelt, President George Washington, President Grover Cleveland, Veto on April 5 | Leave a Comment »
President George Washington was presented with a bill concerning how representatives would be apportioned among the states. When he rejected the bill on April 5, 1792, he was casting the first Presidential veto in the county’s brief history. It would certainly not be the last. In the 217 years since Washington’s first veto, the 42 subsequent Presidents [...]
The Final Battle for Bataan Begins
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Bataan Peninsula, Battle of Bataan, General Douglas MacArthur, General Jonathan Wainwright, General Joseph Stilwell, General Masaharu Homma, Philippine Islands on April 3 | Leave a Comment »
As April swung into view in 1942, the 4th month of Isoroku Yamamoto’s predicted “six-month victory spree” was now under way. The Japanese army and navy were expanding east and south with relative ease, and the resistance to their moves, though valiant, was largely powerless to stop them. General Douglas MacArthur had already been forced from [...]
