On Saturday, September 9th, 1900, a Category 4 Hurricane slammed into an unsuspecting, unprepared Galveston. At the time, it was a bustling port city on a Texas barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. In the days before weather satellites or even radio, the people of Galveston had absolutely no warning, and no timeContinue reading “Podcast: The Deadly Galveston Hurricane of 1900”
Author Archives: andrewspaulw
Podcast: Remember the Sultana! The Civil War Disaster
More souls died during the Riverboat Sultana disaster than on the RMS Titanic! The Sultana disaster on the Mississippi River during the U.S. Civil War is in fact, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. So why is it such a forgotten piece of Americana, with no historical site or Hollywood film? Everyone remembers theContinue reading “Podcast: Remember the Sultana! The Civil War Disaster”
Podcast: The Lingering Legacy of the Chernobyl Disaster
The greatest nuclear disaster the Earth has ever known, worse than even Japan’s Fukushima, or the U.S. Three Mile Island, began innocently enough in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 26th, 1986 at the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. A simple safety test was about to be performed that wouldContinue reading “Podcast: The Lingering Legacy of the Chernobyl Disaster”
Birmingham Bombing Killed Four Black Girls
The Birmingham Bombing in Alabama was a sad day in U.S. history. Just 60+ years ago, on a sunny Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, services began at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The mainly Black congregation greeted each other with broad smiles like they did any other Sunday. It was also YouthContinue reading “Birmingham Bombing Killed Four Black Girls”
Poland’s SOLIDARITY Movement was the 1st Crack in Communism
Poland’s Solidarity [Solidarnosc] labor union was nothing less than Revolutionary, the 1st crack in the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain, leading to its ultimate demise. Since the mid-1970s, Poland’s Communist economy was spiraling downward — production had plummeted, wages stagnated, and shortages were everywhere. In 1979, the new Polish Pope John Paul II famously visited Warsaw,Continue reading “Poland’s SOLIDARITY Movement was the 1st Crack in Communism”
Who Burned the Great Library of Alexandria?
The Great Library of Alexandria, on the coast of northern Egypt was once the largest of the ancient world, containing the works of Homer, Plato, Euclid, Socrates, Aristotle and hundreds more.
The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky – Psychic or Charlatan?
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (HPB to her followers) was a controversial 19th century medium, psychic, author and co-founder of the Theosophical Society.
Jeanne Baret, the First Woman to Circle the Globe
Who was the first woman to circle the globe? Surely someone of wealth and stature, who sailed with her father or husband? Not quite. French peasant Jeanne Baret sailed the world on France’s circumnavigation expedition from 1766 to 1769.
How Could Europe Have Allowed the Holocaust to Occur?
HOW ON EARTH could an intelligent, civilized, 20th century country have demonized an entire religion to the point of justifying deportation, genocide and the Holocaust?
The First Transgender Rebel – Isabelle Eberhardt
The words feminist, adventurer, rebel and cross-dresser are not usually attributed to any woman in the 1890’s. But Isabelle Eberhardt boldly broke every rule of her day, then made up new ones.