The first effort made by the English to establish a colony in America, occurred in the late sixteenth century, at Roanoke Island. Starting in 1584 efforts was made to explore the east coast of North America as far south as Spanish claims. It was in 1587 that a permanent colony was finally created. However great…
When Plato died in 347 bc, Aristotle moved to Assos, a city in Asia Minor, where a friend of his, Hermias (died 345 bc), was ruler. There he counseled Hermias and married his niece and adopted daughter, Pythias. After Hermias was captured and executed by the Persians, Aristotle went to Pella, the Macedonian capital, where…
The Knights Templar, a military order of monks answerable only to the Pope himself, were founded in 1118. Their primary responsibility, at least initially, was to provide protection to Christians making pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They rose in power, both religious and secular, to become one of the richest and most powerful entities in…
Theater and drama in Ancient Greece took form in about 5th century BCE, with Sophocles, the great writer of tragedy. In his plays and those of the same genre, heroes and the ideals of life were depicted and glorified. It was believed that man should live for honor and fame, his action was courageous and…
In late-1922 the German government was forced to ask the Allies for a moratorium on reparations payments; this was refused, and she then defaulted on shipments of both coal and timber to France. By January of the following year, French and Belgian troops had entered and occupied the Ruhr. The German people, perhaps for the…
The Grange was the first major farm organization and began in the 1860’s. This organization was created mostly as a social and self-help association not originally an organization of protest. During the depression of 1873, this group of bonded friends, became an “agency for political change.” They knew in ordered to help themselves they must…
The ancient statues and pottery of the Golden Stone Age of Greece were much advanced in spectacular ways. The true facts of Zeus’s main reason for his statue. The great styles of the Kouros and the Kore. The story of The Blinding of Polphemus, along with the story of Cyclops. The Dori and Ionic column…
The French and Indian War was fought on July 9, 1755. This battle took place at Fort Duquesne, in western Pennsylvania, which was one of the many French forts in the Ohio Valley. The fight was between the English army, which was led by General Edward Braddock and the French army, which was led by…
Sonno joi, “Restore the Emperor and expel the Barbarians,” was the battle cry that ushered in the Showa Restoration in Japan during the 1930’s. The Showa Restoration was a combination of Japanese nationalism, Japanese expansionism, and Japanese militarism all carried out in the name of the Showa Emperor, Hirohito. Unlike the Meiji Restoration, the Showa…
The Indians originally came over to North America via the Bering Strait at a time when the ice age caused the gap to freeze over. They came from Asia by following herds and in search of more. During their travels, some decided to stop and settle down, hence the many different tribes. The Blackfoot occupied…
The center of the Aztec civilization was the Valley of Mexico, a huge, oval basin about 7,500 feet above sea level. The Aztecs were formed after the Toltec civilization occurred when hundreds of civilians came towards Lake Texcoco. In the swamplands there was only one piece of land to farm on and it was totally…
Since 1896, the year the Olympics were resurrected from ancient history, the Olympics have been a symbol of the camaraderie and harmony possible on a global scale. The gathering of athletic representatives, the pride of the pack, from participating governments, even throughout the recent Cold War period, is proof that world unity is possible; just…
Airships. In the early years of War, these beasts were known for their majestic presence in the sky and were icons of a country’s power and prestige. They reigned mostly as reconnaissance and transport utility aircraft but there was something about this “lighter-than-air” ship that made it far more than a mere utility workhorse. In…
The Beothuk people of Newfoundland were not the very first inhabitants of the island. Thousands of years before their arrival there existed an ancient race, named the Maritime Archaic Indians who lived on the shores of Newfoundland. (Red Ochre Indians, Marshall, 4.) Burial plots and polished stone tools are occasionally discovered near Beothuk remains. Some…
The 1968 Tet Offensive is described as one of the bloodiest military campaign of the Vietnam War; the North Communists launched against the South. The “general offensive and general uprising” of the north marked the sharp turn of the Vietnam War. Today there have been a great number of writings about this event. However, it…
Jan. 25.–U.S. battleship Maine, Captain C.D. Sigsbee, U.S.N., is ordered to Havana, Cuba. Feb. 8.–The publication of a letter written by Senor Dupuy de Lome, Spanish Minister of the United States, speaking disparagingly of President McKinley, leads to the Minister’s resignation of his post, and the appointment of Senor Luis Polo y Bernabe. Feb. 15.–The…
Sir Francis Drake Francis Drake was an experienced and daring seafarer. Among many adventures, the ‘famous voyage’, his successful circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580 ensured that he would be one of the best remembered figures of Tudor England. In his own lifetime, he was thought of with mixed feelings, both at home…
ALLIES AND ENEMIES Seneca are among the most respected and feared. The Seneca are culturally similar to their Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk confederates. The five tribes were known as the Five Nations or the League of Five Nations. Sometime between 1715 and 1722 the Tuscaroras from North Carolina joined the confederacy and changed the…
“As the United States is a nation made up of people from many nations, so the Seminole is a tribe made up of Indians from many tribes.” (Garbarino 13) The Seminole are the indigenous people living in southeastern America. They lived in what is now Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. The…
Robert Penn Warren, born in Guthrie, Kentucky in 1905, was one of the twentieth century’s most eminent American writers. He was a distinguished novelist and poet, literary critic, essayist, short story writer, and coeditor of numerous textbooks. He also a founding editor of The Southern Review, a journal of literary criticism and political thought. The…