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The Death of Legendary Chief Crazy Horse
In the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, one battle stands out in history; the battle of Little Bighorn in June of 1876 that resulted in the deaths of over 260 soldiers and scouts including General George Armstrong Custer. The U.S.government had promised in the Treaty of 1868 to set aside the Black Hills of Dakota for the Sioux people, but later after the discovery of gold in the area, the treaty was dishonored. Custer lead an army detachment in the encounter of the Sioux and Cheyenne encampment at the Bighorn River and as a consequence they were annihilated. From The Killing of Crazy Horse By THOMAS POWERS [This] is what rode south toward…
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American Indian Movement
One of the leaders, Russell C. Means, of the AIM (American Indian Movement) died on Monday, October 22. At the time of his death, being an Oglala Sioux, he was living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at his ranch in the town of Porcupine, S.D.. He was 72 years old. The nation first came to know of Mr. Means on February 27, 1973 as he helped lead 200 Oglala Lakota (Sioux) activists and members of AIM in the occupation of Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a very small town where it is told that the Sioux chief Crazy Horse’s heart and bones were buried along the Wounded Knee Creek, was taken hostage by the…
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Earliest Evidence of Pythagoras’ Theorem
To answer the question of what is the first evidenced knowledge of the familiar equation, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, named after the Greek philosopher Pythagoras (569-500 B.C.E.), depends on who you ask. Credit for this geometrical proof has been attributed to, of course, namesake Pythagoras, but also to the ancient Babylonians via the tablet Plimpton 322, the ancient Chinese from the Zhou Bi Suan Jing (c. 100 B.C.E.- c. 100 C.E.), the Indian mathematician Bhaskara, and to Euclid who included a variation in his text The Elements. Though the jury may be out on the rightful owner of being the first, it is evident that the ancients understood the…
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Brooklyn Bridge History: The first crossing of the East River
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Stock Market Crash of 1987
I was in my 20s and working for a small business owner on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. I did not own stocks. I was doing good just to get by on my modest income; this was before finishing college and gaining valuable work experience. My boss, on the other hand, was in a terrible mood that financially dark, historic day. It was blatently apparent that something had gone seriously awry to everyone who came across his path. He had heard the news. The stock market had spiraled downward dropping 508 points, or 22 percent. I don’t know how much he had invested, but from his fowl disposition it was substantial and he, of course, was not alone in this predicament. A predicament that had…
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History of Opportunity Cost: Be careful what you choose
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Famous Ghosts
Captain Kidd purportedly haunts the King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts and the ‘the pond’ on Gardiner Island near New York. William “Captain” Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701)[has good reason to do some serious haunting, since he was unjustly hanged on 23 May 1701 at Execution Dock. On the first attempt, his rope broke and he fell into the mud of the River Thames. The executioners proceeded to drag him out of the muddy mess and secure a new noose around his neck. They suceeded on the second try and left him to hang, along side the other doomed pirates, for the length of three tides to…
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Ayn Rand’s Objectivism
by Research History In 1959, when Ayn Rand was relatively unknown, Mike Wallace conducted her first interview. This broadcast stirred up quite a controversy. The Russian-American philosopher and novelist called her philosophy Objectivism. Her beliefs seemed strange and extreme from an American’s point of view, but when you consider her experience as a Russian at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 it begins to make sense. When Rand was twelve, she and her family had their lives disrupted by the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. This resulted in the eventual confiscation of her father’s pharmacy and they were forced to flee to Crimea. Personal experience and cultural context are the staples…
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History of Opportunity Cost: Be careful what you choose
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Ancient Philosophy for Seniors
According to the Greek philospher Epicurus and the teachings of Zen Buddists, always striving after the next pursuit in the later stage of life, as we do in younger days, is as foolish and empty as chasing the wind. When we are young it is a time for seeking out and exploring new avenues, seizing the brass ring, but after a certain point in life it is better to find contentment in what you have created and the relationships you have fostered. Activities such as reflection and appreciation can be richly enhanced by a full and varied past. Constant striving precludes our ability to be, and enjoy being, a wise, reflective and grateful person of a life…
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Dissident Poet From Hanoi Dies
Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien died October 2, 2012 in Santa Ana, California. Unlike other poets, he was denied a simple pen and piece of paper, much less a typewriter, by which to record his poetry. The infamous prison, “Hanoi Hilton”, and the other prisons of Vietnam in which he spent 27 years of his life, didn’t allow for the normal tools of the poet’s trade. Instead Mr. Thien had to memorize each poem in his head in hopes of one day being able to share them with the world. Thankfully for us he gained that opportunity eventually escaping the horrors that the Communist Party of Vietnam meted out upon him. His crime for which he suffered miserably year after…
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Einstein’s God Letter
Below is an excerpt from the letter Einstein wrote in German in the year 1954. This letter, coined the “God Letter” by a Los Angeles-based auction agency, is up for auction on Ebay with a starting bid of $3 million. The World renown physicist wrote the letter to Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind a year before his death. The letter sheds some light on the religious views he held towards the end of his 76 years of life. “For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a…
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