Contrary to popular myth, Japan’s version of Adolf Hitler was not the Emperor Hirohito, but rather its infamous Minister of War, Hideki Razor Tojo. But who was this ruthless and powerful man so few outside Japan know of? He rose to power in the 1930’s, began World War II in the Pacific, and wasContinue reading “Podcast: Razor Tojo – Japan’s Adolf Hitler”
Author Archives: andrewspaulw
Podcast: Five Reasons the Johnstown Flood Disaster should never have happened
The terrible Johnstown Flood of 1889 was more of a man-made Tsunami. Yes, there was flooding at first. The ‘Storm of the Century‘ rains arrived in the deep Pennsylvania valley on Memorial Day, 1889. The two rivers that flanked the steel mill town began to swell. But it wasn’t until the aging South Fork DamContinue reading “Podcast: Five Reasons the Johnstown Flood Disaster should never have happened”
Welcome to Centralia – the Town that Burned from Beneath
If you drive north on Route 61 in northeastern Pennsylvania, you will come across an innocent looking detour at the top of a low mountain.
Orson Welles’ 1938 Halloween Radio Play Panicked America
Actor and producer Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic in the U.S. when he broadcast his “War of the Worlds” radio play on Sunday night, October 30, 1938. It was so realistic, listeners who tuned in late after 8:00 PM thought they were hearing horrifying news accounts of an actual Martian invasion of Earth! ThereContinue reading “Orson Welles’ 1938 Halloween Radio Play Panicked America”
5 Reasons the 1889 Johnstown Flood Should Never Have Happened
The Johnstown Pennsylvania Flood of 1889 was more a man-made Tsunami than flood by Mother Nature.
Podcast: The Tragic Fate of the SS St. Louis Jewish Refugees
In May 1939, 937 anxious Jewish refugees fled the horrors of Nazi Germany, aboard an ocean liner named the SS St. Louis. Most were German citizens, with Jews from other countries like Poland and Austria. The passengers planned to reach Cuba first, then ultimately seek sanctuary the United States. They would tragically never make it.Continue reading “Podcast: The Tragic Fate of the SS St. Louis Jewish Refugees”
Podcast: The American Legacy of the Cherokee Trail of Tears
General Andrew Jackson won the nasty election of 1828 and was elected President of the United States. At this time, over 125,000 Native Americans still occupied millions of acres in the American southeast – land they had lived on for generations. In a little over a decade, thanks the Indian Removal Act, there would beContinue reading “Podcast: The American Legacy of the Cherokee Trail of Tears”
Why Does The Middle East Have Straight Line Borders?!
Drawing the Middle East’s modern borders on a map with a ruler certainly seemed simple. Perhaps that’s why the lines, set in 1916 by Englishman Sir Mark Sykes and Frenchman Francois Georges-Picot were straight ones.
Was the Great Chicago Fire Started by a Cow?
It is true the infamous fire started in the barn of Catherine and Patrick O’Leary on Sunday night, October 8th, 1871.
The Mariana Trench – a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
A decade before the Apollo Moon Missions, two aquanauts, traveled to the last unexplored place on Earth, the deepest point under all the Earth’s oceans. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, descended down to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, 7 miles, (11 km) beneathContinue reading “The Mariana Trench – a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”