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Blackbeard: Scourge of the Seven SeasBiographics2020-01-22 | Go to http://go.thoughtleaders.io/1437320200115 for unlimited access to the world’s top documentaries and nonfiction series, and for our listeners, enter the promo code ‘biographics’ when prompted during the signup process and your membership is completely free for the first 30 days.
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Vespasian: Savior of Rome & Father of the Colosseum youtu.be/QSlYJi7IZGcHatfields and McCoys: The Most Notorious Feud in American History #sponsoredBiographics2024-10-18 | #wildwest #hatfieldmccoy #biography
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It was December 18, 1912, and a very exciting meeting was about to take place in London that would soon send the world into a frenzy. Before the Geological Society stood two men - amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson and paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward, curator of the Geology Department of the Museum of Natural History. The duo had something quite captivating to present to the scientific community - the reconstruction of a skull believed to have belonged to a human ancestor from 500,000 years ago.
It was named Eoanthropus dawsoni after its discoverer, but most people referred to it by its other name - Piltdown Man. Soon enough, newspapers worldwide heralded it as the much sought-after “missing link” - an ancient ancestor whose existence had been theorized for decades, ever since Charles Darwin made evolution the hot topic of the natural sciences. The British media, in particular, was enthralled with the discovery and proudly labeled Piltdown Man as the “Earliest Englishman.”
Both the scientific community and the public at large accepted Piltdown Man as what they perceived it to be - a crucial discovery and a pivotal moment in the study of life on Earth. There was just one problem, though, and spoiler alert here - Piltdown Man was one of the greatest hoaxes the world had ever seen.
Further Reading: In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of its Survivors by Doug Stanton, Henry Holt and Company 2001Was Franklin Pierce the Saddest President of the United States?Biographics2024-09-19 | Franklin Pierce, who pronounced his surname as “purse”, is consistently ranked as one of the worst Presidents in American history. His administration, which occurred in the decade preceding the American Civil War, is cited as one in which the causes of that war were exacerbated by the President’s policies. Though a native of New Hampshire, Pierce generated considerable enmity from his fellow New Englanders, largely due to his stand against the abolitionists that demanded an end to slavery. His political skills were unequal to the challenges he faced in office, and his own Democratic Party refused to nominate him to run for a second term, an almost unheard of circumstance in American politics.
His life was one of tragedy and melancholy. His wife’s family disapproved of him. It took eight years of courting before she could be persuaded to marry him. Jane Means Appleton, who eventually became his wife, was deeply religious, hated politics, despised Washington, and opposed the consumption of alcohol to the point she was active in temperance movements in antebellum New England. Pierce, on the other hand, thrived in political and legal maneuvers, drank to excess, and served in several posts in Washington. His views on religion can be surmised by his refusal to take the oath of office as President by swearing on a Bible. He affirmed his oath with his hand on a lawbook.
Franklin Pierce entered the Presidency prone to bouts of depression, his wife having refused to accompany him to Washington. Throughout his four years in office, he drank to excess. His was a gloomy, unhappy White House. He may well have been one of the worst presidents in history. He may also have been the saddest, or at the very least, the unhappiest.
SponsorThe Pony Express: The Fastest Mail Service in the Wild WestBiographics2024-09-11 | #biography #wildwest #historyfacts The Pony Express was a solution to that problem, though it was a short-lived one. It was in operation for just 18 months, and in that time it became a legend of the American West. The romantic image of a lone rider, facing and triumphing over the dangers posed by vast distances, inclement weather, hostile Indians, and roving bandits is part of Western mythology. In truth, it was a massive undertaking, a business that ultimately failed when it proved massively unprofitable. Still, it is fondly remembered as part of American history as an attempt to overcome the imposing geography of the continent because what’s more American than charging head-first into a bad idea and refusing to admit you’re wrong?
The goal both Alfred and Edward had in mind was obvious - to unite England under their rule. But although both men were instrumental in laying the foundations to accomplish this, neither one lived long enough to see their ambition fulfilled. Instead, that honor went to Edward’s son and the final subject in our little trilogy, Athelstan, the first King of England. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1
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History CooperativeVercingetorix: The King who United Gaul against the Romans.Biographics2024-08-31 | Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
SponsorGaius Appulius Diocles: The Richest Athlete of All Time?Biographics2024-08-27 | #romanempire #rome #biography Check out CyberGhost VPN at cyberghostvpn.com/Biographics and you will get 84% off CyberGhost VPN. That's $2.03/month and 4 months free! It's risk-free with their 45-day money-back guarantee. Thanks to CyberGhostVPN for sponsoring the video!
SponsorProject Gemini: Learning to Fly in SpaceBiographics2024-08-24 | #science #nasa #apollo Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
SponsorHarold Shipman: The Deadly DoctorBiographics2024-08-13 | Doctors are among the most trusted members of our society. There’s a good reason for this: we entrust them with our most valuable commodity, our health. People share things with their doctors that they keep secret from everyone else, even their closest loved ones. When we are sick or injured, we trust doctors to call upon their vast knowledge of the human body to make us feel better, and in many cases, to keep us alive.
This, however, is a story of a doctor who did the exact opposite of what he was supposed to. Harold Shipman took advantage of the tremendous power he held over his patients in order to victimize them. He murdered hundreds of them in a grisly career that spanned over two decades, for no apparent reason other than because he could. For a long time, he was able to get away with it, using the exalted position his profession held in society to assure grieving relatives that their loved one had died a natural death in order to conceal his guilt.
#truecrimestories #serialkillerdocumentary #haroldshipman What made Shipman so much more insidious than other serial killers was that he wasn’t killing strangers. He was beloved by his patients; his victims welcomed him into their homes and willingly rolled up their sleeves to receive the injection that would end their lives. He preyed on some of the most vulnerable members of society: elderly women who lived alone. Only after he was caught did people realize the enormity of what he had done: his body count marks him as the world’s most prolific serial murderer.
Further Reading: Prescription for Murder by Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie, Warner Books 2000THE PRAETORIAN GUARD: The BODYGUARDS Who Shaped the Course of ROMAN HISTORYBiographics2024-08-09 | Go to tryfum.com/BIOGRAPHICS or scan the QR code and use code BIOGRAPHICS to get your free FÜM Topper when you order your Journey Pack today!
SponsorLeone Jacovacci: A Black Boxer in Fascist ItalyBiographics2024-08-06 | In the mid-1920s, he became one of the most successful European black boxers, boasting incredible winning streaks against world-class champions. His story was the epitome of the underdog success narrative, as he rose from a vagabond life to the limelight.
In different circumstances he may have been remembered as one of the greatest middleweight champions. But the spiteful propaganda of a totalitarian regime quietly consigned him to oblivion.
This is the story of Leone Jacovacci, the black boxer who challenged Fascist Italy.
storiasport.com/file/quaderni-siss-6/QDS6_150-153.pdfJan Palach: The Ultimate Sacrifice Against Soviet TyrannyBiographics2024-08-03 | #biography #history #biographyhistory In the first half of 1968, a window of hope and freedom opened beyond the Iron Curtain. A new government in Czechoslovakia dared to do the unthinkable in Soviet-controlled, totalitarian, Eastern Europe: abolish censorship and liberalize society.
The Party leaders in Moscow would not tolerate the outrage of what became known as the “Prague Spring” and responded to societal reforms with tanks.
One young man in Prague could not stand aside and bear a life under tyranny. To reawaken the consciousness of his people, he would undergo a fiery sacrifice and become a human torch.
This is the story of Jan Palach, martyr of the Prague Spring.
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Further Reading:Carausius: The Roman Pirate Who Became an EmperorBiographics2024-07-20 | Check out CyberGhost VPN at cyberghostvpn.com/Biographics and you will get 84% off CyberGhost VPN. That's $2.03/month and 4 months free! It's risk-free with their 45-day money-back guarantee. Thanks to CyberGhostVPN for sponsoring the video!
SponsorDidius Julianus: The Man Who Bought the Roman EmpireBiographics2024-07-17 | Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
SponsorWas SARS the original COVID?Biographics2024-07-11 | In all of our modern human history, nothing shook us quite like the 2020 COVID lockdowns. It seems like forever ago already, but try to remember just how weird it all was. One day we were going around touching doors and politely coughing on each other, the next you can’t get a sandwich at a deli. Flights were grounded, trailers were shipped to hospitals just to handle the dead bodies, and mandatory quarantines brought out the absolute best and worst in humans. We still haven’t recovered from it.
But keep in mind the name of the virus: COVID-19. That’s short for “coronavirus disease 2019”. This was not our first brush with the bug, which is caused by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus. It was by far the deadliest, with over 7 million deaths and counting, but it was just a strain of a pathogen that the world had been dealing with since around 2002. Much like you download the newest iOS on your phones, the SARS virus has been installing its own updates over the last two decades.
The reason you may not have remembered them very well is most likely the passing of time, and the way the news cycles constantly refresh. But make no mistake: these could have very well taken some random bad turns, and thrown the world into chaos just like COVID-19 did.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92467Jack Gilbert Graham: The Denver Dynamite FiendBiographics2024-07-06 | #biography #history #crimestory In 1955, flying in an airplane was still considered a glamorous activity: men and women dressed up in their fanciest clothes before heading to the airport. In the 1950s, air travel was just starting to take off, if you’ll pardon the pun, in the US, with more routes being added, fares being lowered, and aircraft offered that were faster, more comfortable, and above all, safer than their predecessors. The very idea that anyone would want to blow one of them up was the furthest thought from anybody’s mind.
And yet, that is exactly what happened on the night of November 1st, 1955, just outside of Denver, Colorado. A United Airlines plane was blown out of the sky by a bomb, sending 44 men, women, and children plummeting to their deaths. It was the first confirmed case of mid-air sabotage in US history, requiring investigators to come up with new techniques to solve the case, techniques that are still being used today.
The bombing of the plane sent shockwaves around the country, and so did the identity of the perpetrator: Jack Gilbert Graham, a young man who hated his mother so much that he put a bomb in her luggage to blow her out of the sky, showing absolutely no remorse for everyone else he killed at the same time. Because of this, Colorado made sure to exact the ultimate price from him for his evil deed: death in the state’s gas chamber.
This is the true story of the downing of United Airlines Flight 629, a truly groundbreaking case that created laws, changed long standing customs, and gripped a nation from start to finish.
Further Reading: Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629 by Andrew J. Field, Johnson Books 2005Anne Frank: The Flame the Holocaust Could not ExtinguishBiographics2024-07-02 | #biography #history #worldwar2 For over two years, Frank and her family hid in a makeshift room behind a bookcase in an Amsterdam building where her father worked. The entire time there, until she was captured by the Nazis, Anne would write her thoughts and dreams into her diary, while the world outside her hidden walls went to hell.
After the Second World War ended, a few helpful hands saw to it that Anne’s diary was made available to the world. It has since been a brutal reminder of what humanity can be capable of at its worst, and what humanity is at its best. Here is a single brave girl’s story of survival and fear in one of the darkest chapters in history.
Eric's Links: Eric's cyberpunk story, "Observer", will be featured in Grimdark Magazine next month! Grimdark Magazine: grimdarkmagazine.com/subscriptions
SponsorDavy Crocket: The King of the Wild FrontierBiographics2024-06-23 | Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
SponsorPope Leo X: The Most Extravagant Pope in HistoryBiographics2024-06-18 | #biography #history #pope
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newadvent.org/cathen/09162a.htmNorman Schwarzkopf: America’s Last War HeroBiographics2024-06-14 | In the summer of 1990, President George HW Bush found himself confronted with a major international crisis. The dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, had invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait, then turned his guns threateningly towards Saudi Arabia, threatening to destabilize a region whose oil reserves were absolutely critical across the globe. Bush decided that Saddam’s aggression needed to be checked, and sent in the military.
The man he entrusted to lead the troops was one of the Army’s most experienced generals. Norman Schwarzkopf [Shwarz-koff] was a military man through and through, having been immersed in Army culture from the time he was a small boy. Highly decorated in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was one of a cadre of officers that oversaw the rehabilitation of the military from its lowest point at the end of that war, helping to institute new training, technology, hardware, as well as boost morale among the young men and women who made up America’s fighting force.
It all culminated in those climatic months in the desert. Schwarzkopf’s decisive victory in the Gulf War not only changed the course of history and the geopolitical map of the entire region, but it also turned him into a war hero, perhaps the last one the country will ever produce.
Further Reading:Edmond Halley: The Astronomer Who Discovered Halleys CometBiographics2024-06-08 | Everyone here has heard of Halley’s Comet. It is, without a doubt, the most famous comet in the world, although some people might not know why. They might also not be familiar with the man it is named after, English astronomer Edmond Halley, who did not discover the comet, but calculated its trajectory and successfully predicted its return, proving to the world that such celestial objects have elliptical orbits.
But that was only one of Halley’s impressive achievements. He was also an inventor, a cartographer, a mathematician, a student of geomagnetism, and even a daring explorer. So today we are taking a closer look as we examine the life and career of the man behind the comet - Edmond Halley.
science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/1p-halleyJimmy Stewart: Its a Wonderful American LifeBiographics2024-06-05 | James Maitland Stewart is that rare and admirable human being who could truthfully claim that everyone liked him. During his lifetime and in the years since, it was virtually impossible to find anyone recording a bad word against him, or relating an anecdote in which he appeared less than a gentleman. His distinctive drawl, coupled with his hesitant, stuttering vocal delivery made his voice instantly recognizable, and when it was heard, it was heeded. Late in his long and distinguished career, he provided the voiceover for a major soup company’s television commercials. He did not appear in the advertisements. Campbell’s reported hundreds of telephone calls to their offices, demanding to know if that was really Jimmy’s voice promoting their soup. It really was.
Further Reading:Ptolemy I: The Founders of Egypts Final DynastyBiographics2024-05-31 | Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to http://squarespace.com/biographics to save 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS
Further Reading: Samuel Sharpe - The History of Egypt under the Ptolemies
C. A. Kincaid - Successors of Alexander the Great
Ian Shaw - The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt
Diodorus Siculus - Library of History
Livius
WorldHistoryRonald Hunkeler: The Boy Who Inspired The Exorcist.Biographics2024-05-25 | On May 10, 2020, a former NASA engineer named Ronald Hunkeler died from a stroke a month before his 86th birthday. After his passing, he was mainly remembered for his contributions to space explorations, including work on the Apollo space missions and even a patent on a technology that helped panels withstand extreme heat.
Then, about a year later, a magazine exposé revealed the bizarre, sinister, and unique experience that Hunkeler endured when he was a boy, one which he kept private during his adult life. In his youth, Hunkeler was better known under the pseudonym Roland Doe, a 14-year-old boy who was believed to be possessed by the devil and underwent several exorcisms.
His case, although it did not make any major national waves, still got mentioned in a few newspapers, including one small piece in the Washington Post which was seen by a student attending Georgetown University by the name of William Peter Blatty. For whatever reason, the story stuck with Blatty, and, two decades later, it inspired him to write a horror novel which then got turned into a movie that changed cinema forever - The Exorcist.
https://www.slu.edu/news/legends-and-lore/st-louis-exorcism.php/index.phpKing William III: The Dutch Monarch of Great BritainBiographics2024-05-20 | Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
Further Reading: William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious Revolution by John Van der Kiste, The History Press 2008WILLIAM PALMER: The Notorious Crimes and Trial of the Prince of PoisonersBiographics2024-05-14 | #truecrimestories #crime #doctor Charles Dickens described William Palmer as “the greatest villain that ever stood in the Old Bailey dock.” Other writers and journalists of the day awarded Palmer other monikers such as “the Rugeley Poisoner” and the almost-complimentary epithet “the Prince of Poisoners.” And then, when William Palmer was due to hang, over 35,000 people crowded the streets of Stafford to witness the grisly event, with some even camping overnight to find good spots as if they were attending a festival or waiting for the new pair of Jordans to drop.
So what did Palmer do to earn such a fearsome reputation? The crime that earned him a trip to the gallows was the murder of his friend John Cook with strychnine. However, looking back at his history, it was hard not to notice that so many other people in Palmer’s life died in suspicious circumstances, often with him profiting from their deaths.
William Tecumseh Sherman is forever linked with his famed March to the Sea in the late autumn of 1864. In truth, his subsequent march through South Carolina and part of North Carolina was far more destructive, a fact Sherman acknowledged in his memoirs. He commanded a regiment in the First Battle of Bull Run, a Union defeat which led to him suffering a bout of depression. Northern newspapers questioned his sanity, with one Cincinnati newspaper openly calling him insane.
The USSR’s chief spy in the Manhattan Project was also instrumental in its creation: Klaus Fuchs (Author’s Note: Pronounced FEWKS). Fuchs was considered one of the UK’s top scientific minds, and was recruited to work on the atomic bomb project almost from the very beginning of it. Exiled from his native Germany by the rise of Hitler, Fuchs was happy to work on the bomb project because he believed it was necessary to defeat the Nazis. What not even his closest friends and associates realized, however, was that Fuchs was also a devoted Communist who was passing on all the nuclear secrets he was learning to Soviet agents.
Unlike other spies, Fuchs wasn’t motivated by money: he was a true believer in the effectiveness of the Communist system to heal society’s ills, and also that the Western Allies shouldn’t have a monopoly on the atomic bomb: if world peace was to be maintained, a balance of power was required. He continued passing information to the Soviets until he was caught in 1949, much to the embarrassment of the British security services, who had identified him as a possible security risk for years but done nothing about it. His information accelerated the progress of the USSR’s own bomb project, making him, potentially, one of the most consequential spies in history.
Further Reading: Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs by Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, Penguin Random House 2020Doc Holliday: The Deadliest Dentist of the Wild WestBiographics2024-05-03 | Doc Holliday was the Robin to Wyatt Earp’s Batman; by his side whenever the going got tough, pistol in hand, ready to go out in a blaze of glory. Their friendship became a legendary tale of the Wild West, depicted in many books and westerns.
Holliday didn’t necessarily act this way out of sheer bravery or an undying sense of loyalty, but for a more tragic reason - he knew that he was a doomed man, anyway. Stricken with tuberculosis from an early age, before he even met Wyatt Earp, Holliday understood that he was living on borrowed time, so he chose to live it like a man with nothing to lose. In the process, he became one of the greatest icons of the Wild West.
Legends of AmericaMithridates: The Roman Republics Greatest Enemy [Re-uploaded, FIXED]Biographics2024-04-30 | Check out Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/biographics for 10% off on your first purchase of a website/domain using the code BIOGRAPHICS. Thanks to Squarespace for the sponsorship.
worldhistory.org/Mithridates_VIJohn C Fremont: The PathfinderBiographics2024-04-25 | John Charles Frémont was an explorer, topologist, botanist, soldier, politician, railroad tycoon, gold miner, abolitionist, and one of the most controversial entities in the opening of the American West. He achieved fame and infamy, wealth and destitution, military command and court-martial. His life was as up and down, challenging and exhilarating, as the trails he blazed across the continent.
He was born under the surname Frémon [pronounced FrayMON’], the illegitimate son of a French-Canadian schoolteacher named Charles Frémon and Anne Whiting, the married woman he had been hired to teach French. Anne was married to John Pryor, a Richmond tobacco merchant of considerable wealth. However, Pryor was in his 60s, and his young wife was but 17 years of age, so the dashing French-Canadian soon swept her off her feet.
When Pryor learned his young wife was having an affair with her tutor, he enlisted the Virginia authorities to have Frémon arrested. Frémon and Anne fled to Savannah, Georgia, where she gave birth to a son on January 21, 1813. The infant was given the name John Charles Frémont, retaining the French aigu [Egg-oow] over the letter e in his last name, indicating it was pronounced with the sound “-ay”. Though texts still record his last name with the aigu, it is almost uniformly pronounced with the sound of “ee”, as in “free” or “tree”.
Eventually Frémon made his way back to Norfolk, Virginia, where he died in 1818 after failing to obtain a writ of divorce from the Virginia Assembly. His widow and children found themselves with little income. They moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where young John, well aware of the circumstances of his birth grew to be a rebellious, proud youth, unencumbered by friends and somewhat contemptuous of rules and societal norms. A Charleston lawyer named John Mitchell took an interest in Anne, and thus in her son John, and helped provide his early education. In 1829, young John entered the College of Charleston, though indifferent attendance led to his withdrawal in 1831.
SponsorMaximinus Thrax: The Barbarian Emperor of RomeBiographics2024-04-16 | #rome #biography Nothing lasts forever. Today we remember the might of the Roman Empire but it could not go on endlessly. When exactly the decline began is something for historians to debate, but we can argue that the empire reached its peak in the 2nd century AD, during the reigns of the Five Good Emperors, and slowly went downhill afterward. Then, that slow decline fell off a cliff 50 years later when the end of the Severan Dynasty brought about a long period of great instability and weakness known as the Crisis of the Third Century. And this upheaval was triggered by the violent and murderous reign of a giant of a man, a Thracian barbarian known as Maximinus Thrax.
Herodian - History of the Roman Empire since the Death of Marcus Aurelius
Historia Augusta
Edward Gibbon - Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
worldhistory.org/Maximinus_ThraxJames Monroe: The Era of Good FeelingBiographics2024-04-11 | The first four decades of what has come to be called the “American Experiment” were turbulent in the extreme. First there was a revolution to be won, despite the opposition to its goals expressed by nearly a third of the population. A failed attempt at a national government under the Articles of Confederation led to the creation of a strong federal government, creating disputes over the role of state’s rights that continue to the present day. Partisan politics created divides so wide that at one point a sitting Vice-President, Aaron Burr, killed a former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in an illegal duel. Though the causes of their enmity were many, at their core was a fundamental disagreement over politics.
There were armed insurrections over taxes, over veteran’s benefits, over slavery. During the John Adams administration, the United States fought an undeclared naval war with France. Jefferson sent the US Navy and Marines to fight a war along the North African coast and ordered an embargo against trade with Britain that proved ruinous to American commerce. Quarrels with Britain over free trade and freedom of the seas led to another, nearly disastrous war with the British Empire. Settlers struggling into the western lands of the Northwest Territory and the southern lands found hostile tribes opposing them and a federal government unable to defend them.
Then came a period of eight years of relative peace, during which American commerce thrived, the nation's borders expanded through peaceable means, and the United States gained respect on the world stage. In the wake of the tumultuous years that followed, it became known as the Era of Good Feelings. It was the period of the administration of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States, and the last of the Founders to hold that office.
James I: Scotland’s King of England by John Matusiak, The History Press 2015
Ben Adelman can be reached for comment or commissions at badel811@gmail.comRobin Hood: The Most Celebrated Outlaw of All TimeBiographics2024-04-01 | We find ourselves in England, during the late 12th century. The country is in disarray as King Richard the Lionheart is off fighting in the Crusades, leaving his throne exposed to the devious machinations of Prince John. The younger sibling covets his brother’s power and plans to steal the English crown for himself. He is aided by the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, who uses unaffordable taxes in order to oppress the peasantry and fill his master’s coffers.
Is there nobody who will stand up to such tyrants? Nobody who will pick up the bow and the sword and fight for the innocent people of England? Well, in fact, there is one such man. A brave outlaw who will lead a gang of rogues and outcasts against the reign of terror. A charitable bandit who will steal from the rich and give to the poor. A man known as Robin Hood!
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196655320308051Sergeant Stubby: The Most Decorated Dog of WWIBiographics2024-03-28 | From 1914 to 1918, tens of millions of young men suffered the horrors of the Great War: the trenches, the maddening din of artillery, the hail of machine guns, and the deadly fog released by gas attacks. Almost 10 million of them never returned home.
But even when trudging through the mud, the mist, and the misery, millions of men could count on an army of brave and loyal companions: some 16 million animals who served on both sides of the conflict.
Horses, pigeons, and dogs were conscripted to transport supplies, serve as messengers, stand guard, or even provide first aid.
Dogs proved rather versatile, as they hauled weapons and supplies, carried messages, killed vermin in the trenches, detected enemy scouts, and stood guard. As many as 10,000 canine friends were trained to find wounded soldiers in no man's land. They became known as “mercy dogs”; clad in a Red Cross vest, they carried a first aid kit, water, and liquor to comfort wounded troops.
In today’s Biographics, we are proud to bring you the story of a small mongrel who could, and did, perform all of those duties. More astoundingly, our friend was not conscripted. In fact, one may argue that he volunteered.
This is the story of “Sergeant” Stubby, the most decorated dog of World War I.
‘Sergeant Stubby: How a Stray Dog and His Best Friend Helped Win World War I and Stole the Heart of a Nation’ by Ann Bausum, published by National Geographic, ISBN 978-1-4262-1310-6
Another, a contemporary of MacArthur, Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and the other military leaders of the Second World War, was John Clifford Hodges Lee, whose contribution to the Allied victory was substantial, but whose efforts are largely forgotten. Lee had the often thankless task of ensuring troops were fed, clothed, armed, and supported by medical and staff personnel, rather than leading them in battle. It was his responsibility to have trained replacements ready to step forward when needed, fuel available to support offensives, bullets for rifles, shells for tanks, and mail delivered to the men at the front. Engineers to support combat operations and build necessary roads, storage sites, fuel dumps, airfields, and other military infrastructure were also under his bailiwick.
In accomplishing his task, he developed the reputation of being a self-absorbed martinet. Among the troops, including the senior officers deployed in Europe, his initials – JCH – were said to stand for “Jesus Christ Himself”. In Citizen Soldiers, the noted historian Stephen Ambrose described him as “The biggest jerk in ETO [European Theater of Operations]”, who had “…an exalted opinion of himself”. Yet without his successful execution of his duties, the Allied drive across Europe would have been immeasurably more difficult. He is an interesting, complicated, and sometimes comic figure, who alienated his superiors as well as the men under his immediate command. Yet he got the job done, according to Eisenhower, who said of him, “…I thought it was possible that his unyielding methods might be vital to success in an activity where an iron hand is always mandatory”.