Category: History & Culture
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Know Your History: Christopher Columbus
Did Christopher Columbus discover America? No, Columbus never stepped foot on any of the land we now know as the United States. Was Columbus Spanish? No, he was Italian. Did he command three Spanish ships in search of a new trade route to the Far East? Yes. If he didn’t discover America, what did he…
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Know Your History: The Greatness of George Washington
I suppose everyone knows that George Washington was a great man. But I wonder if people know why he was a great man. I’m sure some would say that he must be great in order to have a nation’s capital, a state, many towns, and umpteen schools using the famous moniker. Among the many reasons…
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What is History? An Essay
Every once in a while I like to post a “proper” essay with citations and everything. This one tries to answer the question, “What is History?” There is no simple answer to this question as you will see. History is an educated guess on a wing and a prayer. Mere shadows of the past come…
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Know Your History: Romania and Ceausescu
In December 1989, the brutal Communist tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife met their bitter end. Ceausescu had built himself up into a personality cult to such a degree that when he came to greet the massive throngs from a balcony high off the ground, he expected the people to cheer for him. He couldn’t…
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Know Your History: Americans Helping the Viet-Minh in 1945
On July 16, 1945 a group of American OSS officers (Office of Strategic Services – the precursor to the CIA) parachuted into the Viet-Minh HQ in Tan Trao, Tonkin. (Tonkin was the name for northern Vietnam during the French colonial period.) This small group of officers were charged with helping to train the Vietnamese to…
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Happy Vietnamese New Year (and a reminder of Tet ’68)
Chuc mung nam moi! Happy ‘Tet’ everyone. January 31 marks the most important holiday of the year for the Vietnamese. Yes, yes. It’s the same as Chinese New Year, but no self-respecting person from Vietnam who speaks Vietnamese (like myself) would ever refer to it using the name of their northern neighbor. It’s ‘Tet’! For…
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Know Your History: Munich Massacre 1972
In what has become one of the greatest tragedies in Olympic history, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team where killed in a terrorist attack by Palestinian extremists. This event, naturally, overshadowed the games as a whole. Israel retaliated with an assassination policy, targeting those it deemed responsible for the murders. This tragic event happened…
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Know Your History: Pan American Exposition of 1900 in Buffalo, NY
What a spectacle it was! Magnificent avenues sided with majestic buildings and exhibition halls that was the marvel of the world for the better part of the year 1900. The crown jewel of the Pan American Exposition was, indeed, the electric lights which pierced every night like a canopy of fireflies, bringing wonder and awe…
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Sit down, drink some tea.
“Sit down, drink some tea.” Never was there such a dreaded phrase if I had a list of tasks to complete, and it’s a phrase I never encounter any more. When I lived in Vietnam, completing ordinary, everyday tasks was sometimes a huge challenge. Getting something fixed or trying to find the right item to…
Author Mark W Sasse 