Commentary: ‘Haunting Legacy’ – UPI.com

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

 

 

WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) — If journalism is the first draft of history, the current phase of journalism with blogs, tweets and miscellaneous bells and whistles is once-over-lightly history that bears little relation to reality.

Mercifully, there are exceptions. Some journalists still spend five or more years researching a subject they already know well and that has already generated scores of books — but the brass ring on history’s carousel is infuriatingly elusive.

This time nonpareil journalist/scholar Marvin Kalb and daughter Deborah Kalb have documented how Vietnam‘s “Haunting Legacy” has spooked every U.S. president from Ford to Obama. And the richly deserved brass ring is in the family vault.

via Commentary: ‘Haunting Legacy’ – UPI.com.

A Day That Shook The World: Tiananmen Square massacre – History, Life

On 4 June 1989, soldiers from the Chinese Peoples Army massacred thousands of their own people, who had been protesting for democratic reforms.

via A Day That Shook The World: Tiananmen Square massacre – History, Life.

Titanic Sinking’s 99th Anniversary Honored

Titanic Sinking’s 99th Anniversary Honored.

News Worth Second Look

The Irish man who saved Hitler – Lifestyle, Frontpage – Independent.ie

15MAR

Tuesday March 15 2011

There’s a memorable scene in the WWII movie Schindler’s List where grateful Jewish workers thank their Nazi boss Oskar Schindler with the words: “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire.”

But what if in saving one life you inadvertently plunged the world into the most catastrophic horror of all time? What if you saved the life of Adolf Hitler just as he was taking his first baby steps to becoming the most evil monster in history?

Carlow man Michael Keogh wrestled with that “what if” for decades up to his death in 1964. Because Keogh, from the village of Tullow, saved Hitler from being ripped apart by an ugly mob.

via The Irish man who saved Hitler – Lifestyle, Frontpage – Independent.ie.

Tags: Hitler

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Medical Advances

2MAR

Image via Wikipedia Edward Jenner (1749-1823), Discoverer of vaccination.

Despite these unorthodox medical practices, the end of the 18th century was marked by many true medical innovations. British physicians William Smellieand William Hunter made advances in obstetrics that established this field as a separate branch of medicine. The British social reformer John Howard furthered humane treatment for hospital patients and prison inmates throughout Europe. In 1796 British physician Edward Jenner introduced vaccination to prevent smallpox. His efforts both controlled this dreaded disease and also established the science of immunization.

• John Adams and Colonial Era Medicine (bsurgmed.wordpress.com)
• How Species Save Our Lives (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Smallpox: the most successful vaccination ever (telegraph.co.uk)

Tags: History, Medicine, Smallpox

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Golden Age of Television 1930′s through 1950′s

2MAR

1936First television broadcastmade available in London.It was in the years immediately preceding WWII that the television industry we know today was born. RCA‘s David Sarnoff used his company’s exhibit at the1939 World’s Fair as a showcase for the 1st Presidential speech on television and to introduce RCA’s new line of television receivers – some of which had to be coupled with a radio if you wanted to hear sound. In addition, anybody visiting the Fair could go into the RCA pavilion and step before the cameras themselves.

The excitement about television generated by the 1939 World’s Fair carried the interest in television through WWII when development of the medium took a back seat. By the time the war was over the electronic system of television had clearly proven its greater capacity and a period of intense growth took place. Between 1945 and 1948 the number of commercial (as opposed to experimental) television stations grew from 9 to 48 and the number of cities having commercial service went from 8 to 23. And, sales of television sets increased 500%. By 1960 there were 440 commercial VHF stations, 75 UHF stations, and 85% of U.S. households had a television set.

Tags: Television, United States, World War II

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Pioneers

2MAR

Nebraska pioneer family, 1886

Although the pioneers traveled to the frontier for many different reasons, they all wanted an opportunity to start new lives.  Many of the pioneers were farmers.  They went to Oregon, Texas, and other areas of the frontier for the inexpensive or even possibly free land. This land was available forhomesteading.  They wanted the rich, fertile land for their crops.  Other people came to the frontier because they had heard stories that made the new lands sound like magical places.  Some went to the frontier in order to prospect for gold, to hunt and trade fur pelts, and for many other reasons

Related Articles

• My Pioneering Family (shirleymclain930.wordpress.com)
• Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences (pgdp.net)

Tags: Frontier, United States

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Vietnam

2MAR

The Vietnam War: An Overview

The Second Indochina War, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, France was forced to leave Vietnam. Communist forces under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated the allied French troops at Dien Bien Phu, a remote mountain outpost in the northwest corner of Vietnam. This decisive battle convinced the French that they could no longer maintain their Indochinese colonies and Paris quickly sued for peace. As the two sides came together to discuss the terms of the peace in Geneva, Switzerland, international events were already shaping the future of Indochina.

On August 2, 1964, in response to American and South Vietnamese espionage along itscoast, North Vietnam launched a local and controlled attack against an American ship on call in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second attack was supposed to have taken place on August 4, although Vo Nguyen Giap the DRV’s leading military figure at the time and Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara have recently concluded that no second attack ever took place. In any event, the Johnson administration used the August 4 attack to secure a Congressional resolution that gave the president broad war powers. The resolution, now known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed both the House and Senate with only two dissenting votes (Senators Morse of Oregon and Gruening of Alaska). The Resolution was followed by limited reprisal air attacks against North Vietnam.

Tags: Vietnam War

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Lindbergh Kidnapping

2MAR

Image via Wikipedia

The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 20 months old at the time, wasabducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of March 1, 1932. Over two months later, on May 12, 1932, his body was discovered a short distance from the Lindberghs’ home.^[1] A medical examination determined that the cause of death was a massive skull fracture.^[2]

After an investigation that lasted more than two years, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested and charged with the crime. In a trial that was held from January 2 to February 13, 1935, Hauptmann was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. He was executed by electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936, at 8:44 in the evening. Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the end.^[3]

Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and subsequent trial “the biggest story since the Resurrection“.^[4] The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the “Lindbergh Law”, which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.^[5]

Tags: Federal Kidnapping Act, Lindbergh kidnapping

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President John F. Kennedy

2MAR

John F. Kennedy was killed on November 22, 1963. Almost 30 years later, Congress enacted the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. The Act mandated that all assassination-related material be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/

President Kennedy was murdered at the height of the Cold War, just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. While the mythology of a lost Camelot developed in the years since his death, the Kennedy era was marked by a variety of tensions and crises. The civil rights movement gathered momentum in the early 1960s and clashed with resistance, particularly in the South. Kennedy’s brother Robert, as Attorney General, launched an unprecedented war on organized crime. Cuba was the most intense foreign policy hotspot – Castro had come to power there during the Eisenhower era and plots to overthrow andassassinate him continued in the Kennedy era. Vietnam was a simmering problem that would only bloom into full-scale war during the Johnson presidency.

Within hours of Oswald‘s murder, federal authorities including the powerful FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover moved to close the case. Others pushed for a blue-ribbon commission. Assistant Attorney General Katzenbach wrote a revealing memo which stated “The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial.” The memo also noted the rumors of a Communist conspiracy based on Oswald’s sojourn in Russia, but also noted: “Unfortunately the facts on Oswald seem about too pat–too obvious (Marxist, Cuba, Russian wife, etc.). The Dallas police have put out statements on the Communist conspiracy theory, and it was they who were in charge when he was shot and thus silenced

Tags: John F Kennedy, National Archives and Records Administration, United States

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Fall of the Hindenburg

2MAR

Image via Wikipedia

ON MAY 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames 200 feet over its intended landing spot at New Jersey’s Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Thirty-five people on board the flight were killed (13 passengers and 22 crewmen), along with one crewman on the ground.

The giant flying vessel measured 803.8 feet in length and weighed approximately 242 tons. Its mostly metal frame was filled with hydrogen. It came complete with numerous sleeping quarters, a library, dining room, and a magnificent lounge, but still managed a top speed of just over 80 miles per hour.

The zeppelin had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Frankfurt, Germany 2½ days prior on its first transatlantic voyage of the season. Thirty-six passengers and a crew of 61 were on board.

Read more: The Hindenburg Tragedy: May 6, 1937http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hindenburg1.html#ixzz1FRV2CY1O

Read more: The Hindenburg Tragedy: May 6, 1937http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hindenburg1.html#ixzz1FRUaX4Jj

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• Up, Up, and Away, in My Beautiful Hindenburg(voluntaryeconomics.wordpress.com)
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• They should remake the Hindenburg movie (circleh.wordpress.com)

Tags: Airship, Hindenburg disaster, LZ 129 Hindenburg

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Nantucket Whaler Lost in Pacific Tells Its Tale at Last – NYTimes.com

Image via Wikipedia

Pollard, you see, was the captain of the Essex, the doomed Nantucket whaler whose demise, in 1820, came in a most unbelievable fashion: it was attacked and sunk by an angry sperm whale, an event that inspired Herman Melville to write “Moby-Dick.”

Unlike the tale of Ahab and Ishmael, however, Pollard’s story didn’t end there: After the Essex sank, Pollard and his crew floated through the Pacific for three months, a journey punctuated by death, starvation, madness and, in the end, cannibalism. (Pollard, alas, ate his cousin.)

via Nantucket Whaler Lost in Pacific Tells Its Tale at Last – NYTimes.com.

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• In Pacific discovery, traces of Nantucket and ‘Moby-Dick’ (boston.com)
• Herman Melville, the last great enigma of American literature (guardian.co.uk)

England’s most-important natural refuges identified | Nature | The Earth Times

 

 

England’s rarest species of animals are not majestic eagles or regal deer, nor are the country’s most important natural sites to be found in any of the popular National Parks. Instead, the rarest plants and animals are to be found – usually with a magnifying glass – in some of less presupposing parts of this green and pleasant land.

The newly-released Protecting England’s Natural Treasures from Natural England pinpoints ten Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as being the last refuges of some of the country’s rarest species. Up in the north of the country, for example, while the Durham Dales may not be on the top of many tourists’ ‘to-do’ lists, they are nevertheless a natural jewel, having harboured the Teesdale rock-rose and the Teesdale sandwort in splendid isolation for more than 12,000 years. Additionally, just off the north-east coast, the small island of Lindisfarne is home to the dune helleborine which, with just 300 planst left in the wild, is rarer than the giant panda.

Down in the south of England, meanwhile, the Sussex emerald moth, the reddish buff moth and the fen ragwort continue to exist in small pockets of protected land, having been all-but decimated elsewhere in the British Isles. Of perhaps the greatest interest to wildlife-lovers – and certainly more-likely to generate media attention – the ladybird spider is moving away from the brink of extinction at one undisclosed spot in the county of Dorset. So-named due to the bright red markings that appear on the male’s back during the mating season, the spider is officially-recognised as Britain’s rarest and most-elusive, though ongoing conservation efforts have seen numbers grow from just 56 to around 1,000 today.

via England’s most-important natural refuges identified | Nature | The Earth Times.

How Vast was the Crime – Yad Vashem

via www1.yadvashem.org

“And so, within seven months, I lost my father, my brother, and my mother. I am the only one who survived. This is what the Germans did to us, and these are things that should never be forgotten. On the other hand, we had our revenge: the survivors were able to raise magnificent families – among them myself. This is the revenge and the consolation.”

Zvi Kopolovich
The Holocaust was the murder by Nazi Germany of six million Jews. While the Nazi persecution of the Jews began in 1933, the mass murder was committed during World War II. It took the Germans and their accomplices four and a half years to murder six million Jews. They were at their most efficient from April to November 1942 – 250 days in which they murdered some two and a half million Jews. They never showed any restraint, they slowed down only when they began to run out of Jews to kill, and they only stopped when the Allies defeated them.

There was no escape. The murderers were not content with destroying the communities; they also traced each hidden Jew and hunted down each fugitive. The crime of being a Jew was so great, that every single one had to be put to death – the men, the women, the children; the committed, the disinterested, the apostates; the healthy and creative, the sickly and the lazy – all were meant to suffer and die, with no reprieve, no hope, no possible amnesty, nor chance for alleviation.

Most of the Jews of Europe were dead by 1945. A civilization that had flourished for almost 2,000 years was no more. The survivors – one from a town, two from a host – dazed, emaciated, bereaved beyond measure, gathered the remnants of their vitality and the remaining sparks of their humanity, and rebuilt. They never meted out justice to their tormentors – for what justice could ever be achieved after such a crime? Rather, they turned to rebuilding: new families forever under the shadow of those absent; new life stories, forever warped by the wounds; new communities, forever haunted by the loss.

Legend of Edmund Fitzgerald: 35 Years On : Discovery News

 

 

 

Gordon Lightfoot made the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald famous with this 1976 ballad that documented the mysterious tragedy of 35 years ago today.

 

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy. “

On Nov. 10, 1975, the 729-foot-long freighter went down in a fierce storm, taking the lives of all 29 men on board. It became what is considered the worst disaster in Great Lakes maritime history. Unlike other famous shipwrecks, like the Titanic and the Andrea Doria, it remains unclear exactly what happened that night.

Dock workers did not report any problems on the morning of Nov. 9 as the Fitzgerald was loaded with over 26,000 tons of taconite pellets in Superior, Wis. Workers also reported seeing the hatch covers replaced after loading.

But the Fitzgerald would confront a powerful gale on its route that led its captains to take a more northerly passage along Lake Superior’s north shore. By mid afternoon of the 10th, waves were reaching as high as 16 feet and heavy snow obscured the captains’ visibility.

At 7:10 p.m. a nearby ship radioed the Fitzgerald to warn of another ship in its path ahead. When signing off, the first mate of the Anderson asked, “How are you making out with your problem?” The Fitzgerald responded, in what would be its last communication, “We are holding our own.”

As the Lightfoot song goes:

“They might have split up or they might have capsized

They may have broke deep and took water

And all that remains is the faces and the names

Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.”

via Legend of Edmund Fitzgerald: 35 Years On : Discovery News.

Related articles

• The Edmund Fitzgerald Immortalized By Gordon Lightfoot Remembered Today (realestateradiousa.com)
• Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald (pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com)
• Edmund Fitzgerald anniversary highlights our desire to have Gordon Lightfoot behave badly (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

Cities of the Underworld 3: Hitler’s Last Secret: Nazi Factory

http://www.history.com/flash/VideoPlayer.swf?vid=95801616301

Moscow Terror Attack: Russia Must Develop an Alternative to Islamism in the Caucasus – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wants to weaken Islamist militants in the Caucasus by building infrastructure projects worth billions. But Monday’s terror attack in Moscow shows once again how hard it will be to win the hearts and minds of the population.

Speaking on television shortly after Monday’s deadly attack on Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev seemed shaken, almost helpless. “This is a terrorist act,” Medvedev said, putting into words what was already obvious to observers.

 

The attack, which according to current figures killed 35 people and injured well over 100, puts the Russian leader under considerable political pressure. His vision of economic development for restive provinces in the Caucasus, such as Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, as a means of combating militant Islam, seems increasingly naive. His dream of promoting tourism in the troubled region appears more unrealistic than ever.

 

 

Related articles

• Medvedev blames security lapse for Moscow blast (theglobeandmail.com)
• Explosion at Moscow Airport: Terror Attack? (thedailybeast.com)
• Separatists blamed as Moscow bombing manhunt focuses on three witnesses, now called suspects (calgaryherald.com)