History

General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2

  • ROCKTOBER-Zombie

    When the Cranberry Saw Us were formed in 1989, they did not know that the changing of the name and lead singer would have such an impact on the band. When the lead singer Niall Quinn was replaced by Dolores O’Riordan, and the name was changed to The Cranberries, the path was open to global…

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  • Below is a list of names of random people. They only had 3 things in common. They lived in the Netherlands at the time of arrest. They were Jewish. They were al murdered today 80 years ago in Mauthausen, only for the reason that they were Jewish. Fritz Rothstein Born in Breslau, 10 August 1921…

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  • I always found it hard to understand why the Nazis kept the shoes of those they murdered. Of all clothing items, shoes are the most personal. Even today you don’t go to a shoe shop and just pick a pair of the shelves. You sit down and you fit them first to see if they…

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  • ROCKTOBER-Young Elvis

    No Rock blog could be without mentioning the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll ,Elvis Presley. He may have been one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. But it wasn’t always the case. When he was just 10 years old he tried to become a star by entering a talent show. It…

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  • You’re a teenager, you are still experimenting with different types of music. One day you turn the TV, tune in to the Dutch music show TopPop, and you see this lady with a guitar, There are a few drumbeats at the start and then a kick ass guitar riff. You are hooked, you found the…

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  • 1740 Batavia massacre

    The Netherlands has for most of its history quite a prosperous country. I wish I could say that all this wealth was always begotten in a fair way, but that would be a lie. The Dutch were ruthless in their quest for the things they desired. From the arrival of the first Dutch ships in…

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  • ROCKTOBER-November Rain

    I know I am a bit early, it is only early October so why talk about November Rain. I am of course talking about the epic song by Guns N Roses with the title “November Rain” Slash states in his autobiography that an 18-minute version of “November Rain” was recorded at a session with guitarist…

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  • The career of Michael Lee Aday aka Meat Loaf, has been a turbulent one, to used an understatement. It went from filling huge stadiums with adore fans, to barely getting people to see him perform in small community halls in Ireland, and back to stadiums. His most iconic song though has to be “Paradise by…

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  • ROCKTOBER-Bohemian Rhapsody

    It’s a song you have all heard a great number of times. And to those who heard it when it was first released it was probably not like anything you’ve heard before. Bohemian Rhapsody is probably the most unlikely title for a Rock song and yet it became a classic , if not THE classic…

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  • Evil science

    No matter how you twist or turn it, when you are complicit to a crime, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator, and perhaps even more guilty because you were an enabler of that crime. Hermann Stieve was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 to 1952, which was from the early…

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