Hiking is great. I should do a lot more of it. The other day, my wife and I ventured out to a local state park that neither of us had visited. We drove through and looked around a bit. Then, on a whim, we decided to walk one of the trails. It wasn’t anything big [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Corps of Discovery Heads for the Undiscovered Country
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1803, Corps of Discovery, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Louisiana Purchase, Meriwether Lewis, Ohio River, President Thomas Jefferson, William Clark on August 31 | Leave a Comment »
Rommel Goes “All in” at Alma El Halfa
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Alexandria, Alma El Halfa, Egypt, El Alamein, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, M4 Sherman on August 30 | Leave a Comment »
When we last visited North Africa, things were going pretty well for the Germans. It was July of 1942, and Erwin Rommel was having a field day at British expense. The Field Marshal had pushed his opponent out of Libya and 200 miles east into Egypt. The British ended their retreat and threw down their [...]
Krakatoa Cracks up in Massive Eruption
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged 1883, Indonesia, Java, Krakatoa, Sumatra, Sunda Strait, Tambora, Volcano on August 27 | Leave a Comment »
Back in April, we talked about Tambora’s massive eruption in 1815, which happens to be the largest ever recorded. When discussing it, I mentioned that there were many other volcanoes in Indonesia. Well, Today’s History Lesson will spotlight another one of them. Tambora is located on the eastern side of the island of Java. But [...]
Missed Call Drives Lt. Herzner Insane
Posted in Period between World Wars (1919-1939), tagged 1939, Fall Weiss, Lt. Albrecht Herzner, Mosty, Poland on August 26 | 6 Comments »
The German invasion of Poland, which began on September’s first day in 1939, wasn’t originally scheduled for that date. It had been set to start nearly a week earlier, on the 26th of August. But it was delayed at the last minute when Adolf Hitler got wind of a new pact that Britain had signed [...]
The Sun Lies About the Moon
Posted in Early nineteenth century (1810-1850), United States, tagged 1835, Dr. Andrew Grant, New York Sun, Sir John Herschel, The Great Moon Hoax on August 25 | Leave a Comment »
Every time I watch a documentary about the Apollo Moon missions or catch a story on The Discovery Channel about interplanetary space travel, my mind flashes back to the bar scene in the movie Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd Christmas (played by Jim Carrey) announces to surprised (and somewhat amused) on-lookers that we had just [...]
Kharkov: Fifth Time’s a Charm
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Kharkov, Operation Citadel, Red Army, Ukraine, Wehrmacht on August 23 | 1 Comment »
If ever there was a city that experienced the changing fortunes of warfare, it is Kharkov. Today, it’s the second largest city in the Ukraine. During the Second World War, it was a Soviet-German battleground no less than 5 times. In 1941, it was captured in late October by the Wehrmacht in that early onslaught we remember so [...]
Ichiki Butai Bitten Hard at Alligator Creek
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Alligator Creek, Battle of the Tenaru River, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands on August 21 | Leave a Comment »
Word drifted back to Colonel Kiyano Ichiki of the encounter some of his men had with Colonel Brush’s patrol. If you recall, Brush’s patrol and a small group of the Ichiki Butai had engaged in a firefight near Alligator Creek. Nearly all the Japanese soldiers had been killed. Ichiki’s response was probably expected, given the [...]
Need the Answer? Check the Appendix
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1804, Appendicitis, Iowa, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sergeant Charles Floyd, Sioux City on August 20 | Leave a Comment »
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were almost a year into what would become the most famous boat and hiking trip in U.S. history, and Sergeant Charles Floyd was very sick. Floyd, a 20-something from the state of Kentucky, had the distinction of being related to William Clark and serving as the expedition’s quatermaster (the man in charge [...]
Lunch and a Battle for Brush’s Men
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged Alligator Creek, Captain Charles Brush, Guadalcanal, Ichiki Butai, Solomon Islands on August 19 | Leave a Comment »
The patrol led by Lt. Col. Frank Goettge, tragically lost on August 13th, was just one of several that routinely went out in those early days on Guadalcanal. And while Goettge’s patrol ran into trouble (that quickly became disaster), others had very little contact with their Japanese enemies. At the same time the last of [...]
Carlson’s Raiders Hit Makin’s Beaches
Posted in Pacific, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1942, Gilbert Islands, Guadalcanal, Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, Makin, U.S. Marine Raiders on August 17 | Leave a Comment »
On August 17, 1942, the Battle of Guadalcanal was 10 days old. The first serious Marine patrol sent out had come to a very bad end, and the first major engagement on this largest of the Solomon Islands was just a couple days away. But already, the U.S. Navy was looking for ways to distract [...]
The Tail of the Dragoon
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1944, Cannes, France, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, Toulon on August 15 | Leave a Comment »
The invasion of France in 1944 has, for more than 60 years, lived in relative obscurity when compared to the invasion of France in 1944. Confused? Don’t be…there were two. The first invasion you already know about. It’s the famous operation, code-named Sledgehammer during the planning stages, that became Overlord and was launched on June [...]
“Battle 813″ Begins
Posted in Period between World Wars (1919-1939), tagged 1937, Battle 813, Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek, Marco Polo Bridge, Shanghai on August 13 | Leave a Comment »
While most people consider World War II to have begun with Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, there had been serious fighting between Japan and China for some time. In fact, by 1937 (a full two years before Germany’s aggression), the two Asian nations had already been in open conflict (mostly in Manchuria) for six years. In July 1937, [...]
Skip Caray: Voice of the Braves
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1939, Atlanta Braves, Francisco Cabrera, Harry Caray, Ray King, Skip Caray, TBS on August 12 | Leave a Comment »
As a long-time Braves fan, it wouldn’t be right to let today go by without saying something about Skip Caray. Born on August 12, 1939, Skip joined TBS (Turner Broadcasting System) in 1976 and, for more than 30 years, entertained fans who either watched the games on TV or listened on the radio. When I became a [...]
Price Goeth Before a Fall
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1791, Alexander Hamilton, Bank of the United States, Carpenter Hall, President James Madison, President Thomas Jefferson, Scrip, Scrippomania, William Duer on August 11 | 1 Comment »
Today, banks are a part of everyday life. Our money is deposited there (usually via electronic transfer), we draw on it to buy stuff (usually via electronic transfer), and if there’s enough in our accounts, we might even draw a bit of income in the form of interest paid. But unless there’s a discrepancy or [...]
Manchuria: Breaking into an Empty House
Posted in China/Burma/India, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Joseph Stalin, Manchuria, President Franklin Roosevelt, Yalta Conference on August 9 | 2 Comments »
The dropping of the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki is usually considered the final act of the Second World War. It was not. Just hours before Bockscar took to the air with its single-bomb payload, the final offensive action of the war began. When the war ended in Europe, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin began shuttling [...]
Living on Keillor Street
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1942, A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor, National Public Radio on August 7 | Leave a Comment »
Many years ago, Saturday evenings usually meant gathering in the living room and listening to the radio. Once the 500-pound device warmed up, families would listen through the static to whatever they could hear clearly enough to understand. They might have included some comedy sketches from Lum and Abner, or maybe Amos and Andy. Or maybe the [...]
The Flat Tax: An Idea Whose Time Already Came
Posted in Civil War period (1861-1865), Lincoln's administrations (1861-April 15, 1865), United States, tagged 1861, Flat Tax, Income Tax, President Abraham Lincoln, Revenue Act of 1861 on August 5 | 2 Comments »
I had to run to the doctor’s office tonight. The back of my leg (just above the calf muscle) has been giving me fits for a couple days and, since I couldn’t diagnose it, I figured I’d get a second (well, actually a first) opinion. It turned into a big nothing…a bit of tendonitis. I’ve [...]
U.S. Congress Creates New “Tariff Sheriff”
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1790, Alexander Hamilton, President George Washington, Revenue Cutter Service, Revenue-Marine, United States Coast Guard on August 4 | Leave a Comment »
As President Washington’s first term of office got under way, the United States was pretty much broke. The Revolution, while great for the soul, had been awful on the back pocket. War loans from the French and the Dutch were hanging over the government, there were other war debts still outstanding, and there were new [...]
Italian Army Adds “Horn” Section to the Band
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1940, British Somaliland, General Archibald Wavell, General Guglielmo Nasi, Italy on August 3 | Leave a Comment »
In 1940, the Horn of Africa had taken on a distinctly Italian flair. And that was to be expected, since much of it had been conquered by Italy. Eritrea became an Italian possession in 1935, Abyssinia was invaded in late 1935 and overrun in May of the following year. Italian Somaliland had been under Italian control [...]
Treblinka: “Revolution in Berlin!”
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1943, Final Solution, Heinrich Himmler, Poland, Treblinka, Uprising on August 2 | Leave a Comment »
©David Shankbone For the people living in Treblinka, their one-year anniversary brought little joy, for reasons obvious and less-known. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Treblinka was one of six extermination camps created by the Third Reich to rid Germany territories and, ultimately, the world, of the Jewish people as well as numerous other [...]
