In April we focused on famous events that occurred during Mondays in April. By popular demand, we’ll do May as well. So, on this May 10th, a busy day in history:The Transcontinental Railroad CompletedOn May 10th, 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad’s eastbound tracks...
Two weeks ago I asked if it seemed like just another Monday, not much going on? Same old, same old? Well, I said, think again! In the context of history, there’s no such thing as just another day. After all, if the human race has been around for 100,000 years, it’s...
Does it seem like just another Monday, not much going on? Same old, same old? Well, think again! In the context of history, there’s no such thing as just another day. Take today, for example, April 12th. In 1861, 160 years ago, the American Civil War began when...
‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce:’ Karl Marx My second blog for this March of Folly takes as its theme Karl Marx’s famous aphorism that: ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.’ i Never has the idea that history repeats...
I borrow my title from Barbara Tuchman’s famous (and controversial) history book analyzing classic historical mistakes. Let us devote this month’s blogs to famous errors, the kinds of monumental errors that make you scratch your head and say “What were they thinking?”...
Rounding out ‘Science February,’ I’d like to raise a glass of pinot noir to some of the great science fiction writers whose works anticipated actual science. Imagination—the well-spring of creative writing—was, in these cases, also the mother of invention. Who’d have...
