The Marquis de Lafayette may not have been a Colonist, but it didn’t take him long to become something of a celebrity in the Colonies. His arrival in South Carolina was a story of heroism, daring escape, and swashbuckling action on the high seas. His youth, good looks, royal upbringing, wealth, and penchant for finery [...]
Archive for July, 2009
The Very Model of a Modern Major General
Posted in The Revolution (1775-1783), United States, tagged 1777, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, General George Washington, Marquis de LaFayette, Second Continental Congress on July 31 | Leave a Comment »
Alton Brown: Feasting on Excellence
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1962, Alton Brown, Feasting on Asphalt, Food Network, Good Eats on July 30 | Leave a Comment »
We have satellite TV at the house, which means we’ve got a gob of channels with nothing to watch…probably a lot like you. So we find ourselves at the Food Network all the time. And most of the time, I’m ok with it. I like food. My wife’s a great cook. So watching people cook [...]
Forrestal Fire at Yankee Station
Posted in United States, Vietnam War (1954-1975), World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1967, Gulf of Tonkin, John McCain, USS Forrestal, Yankee Station on July 29 | Leave a Comment »
On July 29, 1967, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin, conducting air operations against North Vietnam. Having just arrived at “Yankee Station” four days prior, Forrestal’s air crews had conducted more than 150 missions against Vietnamese targets. The morning of the 29th had been no different, as strike packages had [...]
Operation Gomorrah: Fire Down Below
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, Germany, Hamburg, Operation Gomorrah on July 27 | Leave a Comment »
When I published yesterday’s piece on Tears in the Darkness, I forgot that I still had a history lesson for the day. So now that it’s the 28th and I’ve checked my spreadsheet, we get to play a bit of “catch-up”. My apologies for missing this. Operation Gomorrah was a joint U.S. – British air [...]
Inside the Cover: Tears in the Darkness
Posted in World War II (1939-1945), tagged Bataan, Ben Steele, Michael and Elizabeth Norman, Tears in the Darkness on July 27 | Leave a Comment »
Today, I’m taking the unusual step of digressing from a history lesson to post a few words about a book I just completed. At some point in the future, I hope to create a small book review site, but against that day, I post my thoughts here. Enjoy. The Battle of Bataan, fought and lost in [...]
“A Monster with Open Mouth and Monstrous Teeth…”
Posted in United States, The Confederation (1783-1789), tagged James Madison, U.S. Constitution, 1788, Alexander Hamilton, New York, George Clinton, The Federalist Papers, Publius on July 26 | 1 Comment »
It didn’t take long for the leadership in the newly-freed 13 Colonies to realize that the current charter, the Articles of Confederation, were seriously lacking. A meeting was planned in September of 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland to address the issues, but only five Colonies were represented. So they decided to shelve the meeting and try again in [...]
An Ill Day for Il Duce
Posted in Mediterranean, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, Italy, Joseph Goebbels, Pietro Badoglio on July 25 | Leave a Comment »
How the mighty had fallen. When Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922, he had done so on a wave of immense popularity. Twenty years later, he was on his way out. A string of terrible military “adventures” in Africa, a disastrous invasion of Greece, the impending loss of Sicily, and the inevitable invasion of Italy [...]
Operation Gomorrah: Reaping the Whirlwind
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, Germany, Hamburg, Operation Gomorrah, Strategic Bombing on July 24 | Leave a Comment »
Revenge is a dish best served cold. It’s an axiom long used and pregnant with wisdom. If someone does me wrong, it’s best to walk away and give myself some time for reflection and thought before responding. Otherwise, my immediate reaction, in the heat of the moment, is often more wrong than that which was done [...]
Water Surplus Hits Kaskaskia Hard
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1993, Cedar Rapids, Great Flood of 1993, Illinois, Iowa, Kaskaskia, Mississippi River on July 22 | Leave a Comment »
Do you live in the upper Midwest? Have you lived here for, oh…say, 20 years or so? If you answer “yes” to both those questions, then mentioning 1993 probably brings just one thing to mind: floods. Huge flooding. Cataclysmic flooding. Unbelievable flooding. “Whatever-adjective-you-can-think-of” flooding. It was really bad. There’s a meteorological explanation for it, concerning [...]
Marines Find Little Pleasure in Guam-Chewing
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Apra Harbor, General Roy Geiger, General Takeshi Takashina, Guam, Marianas Islands on July 21 | Leave a Comment »
In July of 1944, Army and Marine forces completed the capture of Saipan. Though not the largest of the Marianas Islands, it held the largest Japanese garrison, estimated at more than 30,000 soldiers. Taking control of Saipan, an effort which began on June 15, 1944, was originally estimated to require 3 days (I think pretty [...]
Romancing the Stone
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1799, Alexandria, Egypt, Jean-Francois Champollion, Napoleon Bonaparte, Rosetta Stone on July 19 | Leave a Comment »
Greek. Egyptian hieroglyphics. Egyptian demotic. Three different written languages. One of them, the hieroglyphics, had been considered a dead language for two millenia. The beautiful images and pictorals that comprise the language had been impossible to decipher. Greek, on the other hand, is one of the more advanced languages in the world. When studying ancient texts, a [...]
Earth, Wind, and (No) Fire Aid in Stony Point Victory
Posted in The Revolution (1775-1783), United States, tagged 1779, Battle of Stony Point, Corps of Light Infantry, General Anthony Wayne, Hudson River, New York, Stony Point on July 16 | Leave a Comment »
The Battle of Stony Point is probably one of the more unconventional engagements of the American Revolution. But before discussing the uniqueness of the battle, let’s have a little background. Stony Point, in New York, is located on the Hudson River, just a few miles south of West Point Military Academy. Sir Henry Clinton, leading [...]
The Battle of Kolombangara
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Battle of Kolombangara, Guadalcanal, Kolombangara, New Georgia, Shunji Izaki, Solomon Islands, Walden Ainsworth on July 13 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday’s battle (Prohkorovka) was a tongue-twister, so let’s do it again! Kolombangara is not the biggest island you’ve never heard of, and it’s certainly not the easiest to pronounce. But it’s one of the roundest. So round, in fact, that I used some of my old geometry equations to roughly compute the area. About 9.3 [...]
The Battle of Prokhorovka
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Battle of Prokhorovka, Kursk, Operation Citadel on July 12 | 2 Comments »
It wouldn’t right to have talked about the Battle of Kursk without at least mentioning its final, and most memorable, engagement. If you recall, Operation Citadel (as the Germans called it) had begun the previous week, and was Germany’s attempt to straighten out the westward loop in its front lines. The Russian strategy was to [...]
Marpi Point: Saipan’s Final Act
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Marpi Point, Saipan, Suicide Cliff on July 10 | 6 Comments »
Privates Alva Perry and Paul Scanelon needed a bath. Badly. Neither had taken one in four weeks, and as members of A Company, 24th Marines, they had been tasked with defeating the Japanese garrison on the island of Saipan. And for the most part, that was done. Now it was time to wash a month’s worth [...]
Lituya Bay: Back-Broke Mountain
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1958, Alaska, Earthquake, Howard Ulrich, Lituya Bay, Tsunami on July 9 | 1 Comment »
When the words “Lituya Bay” are mentioned (which, to be perfectly honest, doesn’t happen all that often), I think of those Old Milwaukee beer commercials from years past. You remember the ones? They go something like… Lituya Bay and Milwaukee both mean something great to these guys. Lituya Bay means Alaska, America’s wildest frontier. Beauty, wildlife, fishing. [...]
The Deadly Venom of the Inland Saipan
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 105th Regiment, 1944, Congressional Medal of Honor, Gyokusai, Paradise Valley, Saipan on July 7 | Leave a Comment »
For some reason, this didn’t get published when it was supposed to…I messed up the dates or something… If you recall, several weeks ago I wrote about the venom of “Coastal Saipan”. Today it’s “Inland Saipan”. You might be wondering at the whole poison connection. Well, I’ve always been fascinated by snakes. I hate them, [...]
Alexander Gorovets: Russian Gunslinger
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Bell P-39 Airacobra, Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Hero of the Soviet Union, Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, Kursk, Lavochkin La-5, Lt. Alexander Gorovets, Operation Citadel on July 6 | Leave a Comment »
I came across the story of Alexander Gorovets some time ago in a book I was reading. But of course, I didn’t write down which book, so when it came time to talk about him, I had lost my main reference. I figured an Internet search would turn up all the info I needed. I was [...]
