Tag: PASSIONBLOG

Fidel Castro was a Cuban dictator who instilled deep fear in to the hearts of US policy makers. The reason for this was because he was a Communist and had successfully established a Communist state in the Western Hemisphere. He took power during the Cold War and was cooperating with the Soviet Union, the United States’ greatest enemy. The fear of a nuclear attack became so much more real, as shown in the Cuban Missile Crisis due to Cuba’s close proximity to the United States south. Castro ruled in Cuba for nearly 50 years and during that time dealt with many attempts to take his life. In 1975, an United States congressman was investigating activities of the CIA in Cuba, and uncovered at least eight “plots” that the CIA had put together in order to assassinate Castro between 1960-1965. Between March and August 1960, the CIA had a plan to ruin his speeches by putting an LSD-like chemical in the air in his broadcasting studio. Ultimately, they chose not to as they hadn’t done enough research on the chemical. On November 22nd, 1963, a CIA official ordered for a poison pen to be used in order to kill Castro. The CIA also frequently targeted cigars and there are notes saying that on one occasion, they injected the cars with a chemical that causes temporary disorientation, in hopes that Castro would smoke one before a speech. In 1961, an unidentified person in Cuba was given a box of Castro’s favorite cigars that were injected with a toxin so strong, they would kill a person the minute the cigar was put in their mouth. Although, the cigars were clearly never delivered to Castro. There was also a plot to destroy Castro’s iconic beard using thallium salts, although it was set to occur while he was on vacation, and he ended up cancelling his trip. The threat of Communism made US officials go a little crazy, and led to the planning of plots such as the ones above. They would do anything to ruin Castro’s reputation and get him out of power.

 

 

 

 

Today, we are talking about religion. I know, what a bore! Although, back in the day religion was something the caused massive wars; most of them being the most passionate, divisive, and bloody in history. The Thirty Years War is probably the most well known of the most religious conflicts that occurred mainly throughout Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. This war was caused by a religious split between the newly formed Protestant faith and the old Catholic faith that ruled over Europe. The events, that led to this war breaking out, are what we will be talking about today. In particular one event, the 1618 Defenestration of Prague was quite the skeptical. Basically what happened was that, the Protestants in Bohemia (A territory in the Holy Roman Empire) started building Protestant churches because they wanted somewhere to practice their religion. The only problem with this was that the Holy Roman Empire was ruled by the VERY Catholic Hapsburg family, so obviously they were not chill with that at all. Therefore, officials in the area began closing these churches and ordering the people to stop. The Protestants were like yo, we can do this because of The Letter of Majesty which was a agreement that granted them some religious liberty. The issue with this was that that Letter was written by the previous leader and the current Hapsburg leader was like nah fam we are not doing that. Now, we must remember this is the 1600s, so they called an assembly together and the Protestants were all “We just wanna talk”, but when the Catholic officials arrived they definitely did not talk. This meeting, called the Defenestration of Prague saw three of those officials chucked from a window of the building by angry Protestants. Although none of the Catholic officials died, they did sustain injuries and the event fueled the fire that ended up lighting the fuse of the Thirty Years War.

Jaws was one of the most popular movies of the period it was released and continues to be a cult favorite. It has created a fear of sharks in everyone who watched it. The scary and tension-inducing music, the image of the giant shark swimming towards the small human, and the wide and unforgiving ocean all factor into the deep fear of sharks. But where did Jaws draw their inspiration from?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In July of 1916, a series of shark attacks in New Jersey terrorized swimmers and killed many. Sharks generally avoid human interaction and keep to themselves, although the shark in these attacks was different than the usual. The people in the water were doing nothing to bother the shark; them being in the water was enough. The first death did not make as big a splash (see what I did there) as perhaps it should have. People on the beach heard the man being attacked screaming from the water, but they thought he was screwing around and ignored it. His body drifted below the waves and no one thought anything about it. This was the first recorded shark attack death. The second swimmer that was attacked ended up washing up on the beach, their half eaten body mauled and deformed. The beach-goers, seeing this, ran from the beach in terror. From that point on, sharks were demonized in the media. The wild shark killed five people in total, and the story lived on in infamy. In 1975, Spielberg released the summer hit “Jaws”, which was based on the events of the summer of 1916. Knowing what we know about sharks now – that they are relatively docile when it comes to humans – makes Jaws look like a fictional and maybe even a little obscure story. Although, Jaws was dramatized, the story it told was not too far off. The maulings of the five swimmers on the Jersey Shore on that fateful summer will forever live on through Jaws, and Jaws will continue to scare the hell out of anyone thinking of taking a visit to the beach.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160713-the-true-story-of-jaws

 

World War II was a long and bloody war that left many changed forever and upset the traditional balance of power of the international system. If concentrating on the East Asian theater of war, there were two sides; the United States and their allies versus the Japanese. In today’s society, one would not look at Japan and think that they have immense military power, and that is because their military was dissolved by the allies at the end of WWII. Yet, in the 1940s, Japan launched one of the deadliest attacks on U.S soil by bombing the military base at Pearl Harbor. This tragic event threw the United States deep into the war and troops were deployed to east Asia to fight the Japanese army. One place where a lot of fighting occurred between these two powers was the Philippines. There, the Japanese had to be creative in order to compete with the strong US army, therefore; they often resorted to using Guerrilla war techniques in which their soldiers would camp out in the forest. One particular solider, Hiroo Onoda was ordered to go into the forest and use guerrilla methods where he saw fit against the enemy forces. Onoda was very committed to the Japanese cause and believed that they could win the war. So after months of living in the forest and surviving of of food stolen from farmers, Onoda could not believe it when American planes dropped pamphlets that stated that the war was over and a resolution had been forged between the two countries. In fact, he thought that it was propaganda and promptly dismissed it. He carried on in the forest, while terrorizing the local people of the small island he was residing on. Later, Japanese officials found out that he was still in the forest along with a couple other men and released more papers with pictures of their families on them begging them to come home. Although the result stayed the same, as Onoda figured his family was under US captivity and was forced to take the pictures. There was nothing that was going to get Onoda out of those woods, and he was becoming more and more of a problem. He ransacked houses and farms and killed many innocent people who lived on the island, as he thought it was still wartime period. The only option left was to pull one of his commanding officer out of retirement and ask his to give the orders. The man, who had since then become a bookkeeper agreed and orders were given for Onoda to come out of hiding and end the madness. Hiroo Onoda finally surrendered in 1974, 29 years after the Japanese surrendered! He came out of the forest still wearing his uniform from so many years past. His arrival back in Japan caused for celebration of a committed war hero, but Onoda could not understand what was going on. What had happened while he was in the forest for 29 years? So much had changed and he did not understand why or how Japan lost the war. He could not bring himself to accept the new Japan, so he moved to Brazil and ran a farm. Eventually, he returned to Japan where – at the age of 91 – he passed away due to heart failure. Onoda is not a character that taught about, especially in American schools, when discussing WWII. Although, he was a stubborn but committed soldier who gave away 29 years of his life for his beloved country. This is an amazing story, and not one often taught or told, but one that is worth knowing.

Works Referenced:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/hiroo-onoda

 

Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the most iconic figures in world history and specifically European history. He was a French military general, and later went on to became France’s first emperor. He is known as one of the world greatest military leaders, and was a force to be reckoned with in his peak. One day, Napoleon wanted to hunt rabbits with his friends. He had just signed a treaty to end a war with Russia, and needed to blow off some steam. The rabbit hunting session took place at Napoleon’s good friend, Baron Berthier’s house in the countryside. In order to prepare, Berthier released cages of captured rabbits into the field while him and his hunter friends lined up for the event. The only problem was that the horde of rabbits were not wild; instead, they were farm rabbits. This mix up caused them to run towards the group of men for food instead of scattering into the forest. The hungry rabbits specifically targeted Napoleon and began to jump on him and run up his legs as he danced around attempting to fling them off. The horde of rabbits almost knocked the smaller-than-average Napoleon down, and he was left with only one choice – to abandon the hunt. He ran to his royal carriage to escape the madness, although he could never escape the embarrassment of almost being taken down by the fuzzy creatures.

This just goes to show that even the most powerful humans on earth are no match for the wildness of the animal kingdom. Napoleon was the most influential figure on Earth during this time period and was feared by many leaders across Europe and even across the seas. What had started as an innocent and fun activity with friends had quickly turned into a terrifying experience. Although Napoleon had won many bloody and difficult battles against some of the strongest military countries in the world, the bunny horde was one striking opponent he never saw coming.

Works Referenced:

When Was Napoleon Attacked by a Horde of Rabbits?

If you have ever had to undergo a surgical procedure, you were probably very happy for the anesthesia that knocked you out before the first cut. Unfortunately in the 1800s, patients did not have this luxury. Instead, they were forced to undergo long and painful surgeries while awake and while feeling everything. There were many doctors who wanted to solve this issue, but they did not know how to – until – Dr. Robert Liston. Liston was famous for performing surgery extremely fast, as to reduce the amount of time his patients had to endure the excruciating pain. He wrote about his methods in his 1837 book “Practical Surgeries”. Dr. Liston was very famous for his surgeries and was a well-respected surgeon within the medical field. In 1847, he encountered a patient who needed a leg amputation. Liston performed the surgery in 25 seconds, but his speed came with unforeseen consequences; he ended up cutting his assistant’s fingers off along with the patient’s leg. The room was filled with spectators, who were shocked at what they had seen. One man was so frazzled, that he dropped to the ground and died of shock and freight. The procedure proved to be wildly unsuccessful, as both the patient and Liston’s assistant died of sepsis. Thus, the surgery was left with a 300% mortality rate, and remains the only surgery in history to have reached that percent. Although this infamous procedure was a serious damper on Dr. Liston’s success rate; he still remained at the top of his field. His death rate was very low compared to other surgeons, and his tactic of performing extremely fast worked relatively well.

Even though something like this happening in today’s society would be insane, Liston’s procedures were a revolutionary force in the medical field at the time. This story just goes to show how far science and technology has evolved in recent years. Also, I think Dr. Liston would be shocked to learn that surgeons generally take between two and three hours for a leg amputation now.

 

Works Referenced:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/robert-liston

Once upon a time, there was a vicious Viking named Hastein. You know he was a cool dude because he only had a first name. (ex. Cher, Moses, etc). In the mid to late 800s CE, he traveled around Europe while raiding costal cities and taking whatever he wanted with his fellow Vikings. He eventually made his way to the Mediterranean, where he decided that he wanted conquer Rome. At this time, Rome was the most famous city in the world. This was sure to be a difficult task. And you know what made it even harder for Hastein? The fact that he did not know where the hell Rome was! He just kinda looked around the general area that he thought it would be, and eventually he stumbled across a city that contained a lot of marble. Well, surely this must be Rome he thought! He knew that he had to get in the walled city, by devising a plan, because he did not have enough men and weapons to pose a physical threat. Hastein had one of his men go into the town and tell the bishop that their king, Hastein had died. Oh no! They claimed that he had died after recently converting to Christianity and that his dying wish was to have a proper Christian burial. What was the bishop supposed to say? No? He had to say yes, so he invited the Vikings inside the walls and said that he would conduct the ceremony. Hastein’s men carried him beyond the walls inside a coffin, which he promptly leapt out of with a sword in hand. He killed the bishop first (rude!) and then began to pillage the city with his men. After the madness, he proudly declared himself the “Conquer of Rome”. Except, he had not actually conquered Rome. A townsperson let him know that he was not in Rome, he was actually in Luni… 250 miles away from Rome. Now, that’s just a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.Works Consulted:

When the Viking Hastein Tried to Invade Rome