New York mayor Eric Adams (bio here) tried to compose an inspiring Memorial Day message, but got himself ridiculed instead (see story here). Speaking at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum (website here), whose star attraction is the U.S.S. Intrepid, a World War 2 aircraft carrier preserved as [...]
Posts Tagged ‘history’
April 23rd, 2022 - 1:42 am § in Misc.
Feature film: Fortress (2012)
This low budget, made-for-DVD, but well done film pays tribute to the B-17 bomber crews of the European theater in World War 2. Like any movie, it has a plot and script, so the storyline feels a bit contrived. Even so, it conveys a sense — better, I think, than the big-budget films — of [...]
What the Founding Fathers screwed up
Ever since the colonists declared independence on Sunday, July 2, 1775, we’ve celebrated the following Tuesday as the birth of our nation, and venerated the Founding Fathers as the greatest political geniuses of all time. Of course, it’s well known they were a cabal of slaveowners, and a[...]
What if you were stuck in a cave with 14 other people for 40 days?
Would more than one of you still be alive? By the time the HMS Bounty mutineers were found on Pitcairn Island, only one of them was; and their Polynesian predecessors on that island apparently didn’t fare any better (read about that here). During World War 2, Jewish partisans holed up in close[...]
A brief history of African-American heroes
From Revolutionary War days to the present, many African-Americans have given their all for a country that often was reluctant to acknowledge them. While the Tuskegee Airmen are widely known, thanks in part to Hollywood, how many people know the story of the Buffalo soldiers? Or the Harlem Hellfight[...]
December 18th, 2020 - 12:43 am § in Misc.
Movie: Battle of Nagashino (1992)
What happened to sumurai who brought katani (swords) to a gunfight. This depiction of an actual event that took place in A.D. 1575 (info here) is an excerpt from a Japanese TV series (“Nobunaga, King of Zipangu,” Episode 38, info here). Running time: 11:49 min. Return to The-Ave.US Home [...]
December 1st, 2020 - 1:44 am § in Misc.
Full-length feature film: Matewan (1987)
Critically-acclaimed film about labor organizing in the West Virginia coalfields, culminating with a depiction of the “Matewan massacre,” an historical event of May 9, 1920, which is reenacted in the present day as a tourist attraction (second video below). Running time: 2 hrs. 13 mins. [...]
Historians say Truman didn’t order Nagasaki bombing
Once the A-bomb was tested and worked, whether civilians or the military would control it became an issue. Thanks to Truman, it remained under civilian control. Today, the Department of Energy, not the military, is the custodian of America’s nuclear weapons. Everyone knows Truman ordered the H[...]