There are some who might think I’ve spent way too much time writing about Alexander Hamilton. Pick a different Founder, you say. My response is that I will…when I do more learning about them. Or maybe you don’t much like our First Treasury Secretary, believing him to be the first man to really monkey with the Constitution. [...]
Archive for January, 2011
Alexander Hamilton – From Secretary to Attorney
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1795, Alexander Hamilton, George Clinton, New York, President George Washington, Secretary of the Treasury on January 31 | 2 Comments »
John Hancock Embraces Agony of De-Feet
Posted in United States, The Confederation (1783-1789), tagged 1788, Samuel Adams, Massachusetts, John Hancock, Amos Singletary, Jonathan Smith on January 30 | 1 Comment »
Most of us know at least one fact about John Hancock – not the company that manages pensions and investments, though it’s named for him, but the actual guy – and that’s probably his enormous handwriting. It was Hancock after all, who signed the Declaration of Independence with a Texas-sized signature, forcing the remaining signers [...]
The Burma Road – Open for Business
Posted in China/Burma/India, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Burma Road, Chiang Kai-shek, China, General Joseph Stilwell, General Lewis Pick, India, Kunming, Ledo Road on January 28 | Leave a Comment »
“On January 12, 1945, World War II’s first overland-vehicle convoy from India to China fired up its engines and, with a slow and jerky rumble, began to organize along the road leading northeast out of Ledo, in northeast India.” So begins the final chapter of Donovan Webster’s The Burma Road. Led by General Lewis Pick, [...]
Shoichi Yokoi’s Thirty-Year War
Posted in Post-war history (1945-), tagged 1972, Guam, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi, Surrender on January 24 | Leave a Comment »
Well, the trip to the doctor for my back malady seems to have paid big dividends. By noon yesterday, I was feeling much, much better. I could get out of a chair, walk around, sit down, drink a soda, eat pizza, and watch the Packers find their way to the Super Bowl. Some of you [...]
British Wrest Tobruk from Italian Control
Posted in Africa, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1941, Afrika Korps, Deutsches Afrikakorps, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Libya, Operation Compass, Tobruk on January 22 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been away from the keyboard for a few days again. Well, that’s not strictly true, as my “day job” has me sitting behind one 8 (or more) hours a day. But I’ve been away from here, partly due to work and partly to some aggravating back trouble that makes it somewhat difficult to stay comfortable [...]
Thunderbirds Are Stop
Posted in World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1982, Arizona, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Diamond Crash, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Northrop T-38 Talon, USAF Thunderbirds on January 18 | Leave a Comment »
For those of us fortunate enough to take in an Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration (or a Blue Angels show if the Navy is your thing), it’s been an upward view to a rare display of precision flying and aerobatic skill. The team hones their show to a razor’s edge, flying all sorts of different formations in [...]
The Nation’s First Credit Report
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1790, Alexander Hamilton, Debt, James Madison, Report on Public Credit, Unfunded Liability on January 14 | 2 Comments »
As anyone with a pulse probably knows, the United States government is pretty badly in debt. I did a few searches to try to find the total, but that was difficult. It appears that most “debt-clock” sites show the nation in the hole by more than $14,000,000,000,000…14 trillion dollars. But then there’s this thing called “unfunded liabilities”. [...]
Alexander Hamilton: Ignoble Birth to Founding Father
Posted in Colonial history (1607-1775), United States, tagged 1755, Alexander Hamilton, James Hamilton, Johann Michael Lavien, Nevis, Rachel Faucette, West Indies on January 11 | Leave a Comment »
Unless you vacation in the West Indies, you’ve probably never heard of Nevis. Located a couple of hundred miles south and east of Puerto Rico, Nevis is a 36-square-mile chunk of rock dominated by the 3,200-foot natural lookout of Nevis Peak. If you visit the official website for Nevis, it won’t take you long to [...]
Germans Offer up the Special…a Suwalki Strip
Posted in Russia, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1941, Count von der Schulenburg, Germany, Russia, Secret Protocol, Vyacheslav Molotov on January 10 | Leave a Comment »
The Nazi-Soviet Pact (signed in August of 1939) is easily the most recognizable agreement between Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. I suppose that’s something of a surprise, since Adolf Hitler despised Russia’s Bolshevism and Joseph Stalin despised Germany’s National Socialism (and was paranoid of nearly everything and everyone else). And it was that distrust that really made the Pact [...]
The First State of the Union Address
Posted in Constitutional period (1789-1809), United States, tagged 1790, Alexander Hamilton, New York City, President George Washington, State of the Union Address on January 8 | 1 Comment »
“A little after noon on January 8, 1790, George Washington climbed into his cream-colored coach and rode off to Federal Hall behind a team of four snow-white horses. In its sparsely worded style, the Constitution mandatd that the president, from time to time, should give Congress information about the state of the Union, but it [...]
Theodore Roosevelt’s End – A Good Beginning
Posted in Twentieth century (1901-1960), United States, tagged 1919, Embolism, President Theodore Roosevelt on January 6 | 4 Comments »
Sometime I get things backwards. Instead of starting at that beginning, I begin at the end. When it comes to studying historical figures, it’s certainly not the best way to approach things. I did just that more than two years ago when I wrote about Alexander Hamilton’s duel with Aaron Burr. It was the first [...]
Let’s be Frank…Buffalo Comeback a Miracle
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1993, AFC Wildcard, Buffalo Bills, Football, Frank Reich, Houston Oilers, Steve Christie, The Comeback on January 3 | Leave a Comment »
Watching the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears yesterday afternoon has put me in a football state of mind. It wasn’t a great comeback or a game of last-second heroics (though Nick Collins’ interception of a Jay Cutler pass with about 20 seconds remaining to seal the victory had us jumping up and down), [...]
Allies Caught Sleeping on New Year’s Day
Posted in Europe, World War II (1939-1945), tagged 1945, Ardennes Forest, Battle of the Bulge, Brussels, Operation North Wind, Operation Watch on the Rhine on January 1 | Leave a Comment »
As the sun rose over Aschen Field, Lt. Col. John Meyer sat in the cockpit of his P-51 Mustang. Yet another morning, yet another dawn patrol. Recent weeks had seen a flurry of frustration, as low clouds and snow had made it nearly impossible for pilots like him to assist the ground forces in their [...]
