History
General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2
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On September 15, 1971, NBC aired the first official episode of Columbo: Murder by the Book. What could have been just another detective drama instead became a genre-defining moment. With Peter Falk stepping fully into the role of Lieutenant Columbo, a script by legendary writer Steven Bochco, and direction by a then-unknown Steven Spielberg, the…
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A few years ago, on the 22nd of June 2016, to be precise I wrote a blog titled “Holocaust and Humour.” I received loads of criticism for it. The thing I found extraordinary the criticism didn’t come from people who read the blog, but only from people who read the title. I didn’t mean to…
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The 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was assassinated on September 6, 1901, during a public event at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was attending a reception at the Temple of Music, where he was greeting members of the public as part of his duties at the exposition, a grand…
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Bohemian Rhapsody is probably the most unlikely title for a Rock song and yet it became a classic , if not THE classic Rock song for many generations. This musical masterpiece lasted 5 minutes and 55 seconds, another reason why it should not have become a hit. Because prior to that, 3 minutes was the…
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(Originally posted September 18, 2017) The title is a line from a 1945 letter, from Harold Porter to his mother and father in Michigan, describing the situation at the Dachau concentration camp after liberation. The letters that Pfc. Porter, who served as a medic with the 116th Evacuation Hospital, wrote to his parents are now archived…
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“Dagen H,” or “H Day,” stands for “Högertrafikomläggningen” in Swedish, meaning “The right-hand traffic diversion.” This term refers to one of the most significant and carefully planned transportation changes in Sweden’s history: the switch from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. On September 3, 1967, Sweden made this monumental change.…
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This is a very personal blog for me.Not because I was personally involved in it, because I wasn’t, but because it really touched me emotionally. Although I don’t suffer from depression myself, that is really what the song is about,depression and the effects it has especially on teenagers and young adolescents. I first heard the…
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d Don’t worry I haven’t suddenly turned Italian and although the music in this blog will be in Italian, the text won’t be. The thing is every once in a while I like to deviate from my usually heavier historical subjects to a more light-hearted one. I love Italy, I had the chance to visit…
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In the Middle Ages, animals who ‘committed crimes’ were subject to the same legal proceedings as humans. Famously, in 1457, seven pigs in Savigny, France were tried for the murder of a five-year-old boy. The proceedings were complete with a defense attorney for the pigs and a judge, who ultimately ruled that because people witnessed…
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(First published September 2, 2018) The position of Ireland during World War II was a bit of a tricky one. A lot of people actually were pro-German, not so much because they agreed with the German policies but more because they were at war with Britain, and there was still this feeling that Britain’s enemy…
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