The Tragic Sinking of China’s SS Kiangya

On the night of December 4th,1948, the passenger steamship SS Kiangya exploded and sank just north of Shanghai, China.  It was the world’s worst non-military maritime disaster at the time. The steamship blew up at the mouth of the Yangtze River, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Shanghai and rapidly sank. The suspected cause – a mineContinue reading “The Tragic Sinking of China’s SS Kiangya”

The Forgotten Great Chinese Famine of 1959

From 1959 to 1961, the Chinese people were decimated, not by the coronavirus and COVID-19, but by a devastating famine. The death toll, concealed by the Communist government at the time, is still a matter of debate. The consensus however is that at least 30 million people died, though some estimates take it as high as 50 MILLION.

The Many Murders of Russia’s Rasputin

How many murder attempts did it take to finally kill the infamous Siberian monk Rasputin?  Five, and all in the same night! Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, was a Siberian-born peasant and monk.  At the young age of 23, he left his wife and three children to follow his calling and join an Orthodox monastery.  After onlyContinue reading “The Many Murders of Russia’s Rasputin”