Category: Odd Facts
The Myth of Black Confederates — Historian Blasts Fantasy That “Thousands” of African Americans Fought for the South
“The very idea of black Confederates is a relatively recent phenomenon, emerging after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.” By Doug Peterson PATRICK R. CLEBURNE, A PROMINENT GENERAL IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY of Tennessee, could see what…
The Battle of Los Angeles — The Night California Believed It Was Under Japanese Attack
“All winter, the population along the U.S. west coast feared they’d be in the enemy’s bombsights next. Could this be the attack Californians were dreading?” JUST AFTER 3 A.M. on Feb. 25, 1942, the skies over…
Wartime Witchcraft? – The Strange Case of Helen Duncan and the Sinking of HMS Barham
“How was Duncan picking up on military secrets? Was she in contact with the enemy? Was she receiving leaked information from inside the War Office? Or was she really a witch?” HELEN DUNCAN, 44, was hosting…
The Forgotten Armies of the Western Front – 1914 to 1918
(Originally published October 2012) EIGHT MILLION MEN fought in the British Army during the First World War. More than half of them (5 million) served in France and Flanders on the Western Front. [1] These…
Rumours of War – The Incredible Myths & Legends of WW1
THE FIRST WORLD WAR WAS BARELY TWO WEEKS OLD when Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II shot off an urgent (and now famous) telegram to the commander of his first army group, Alexander von Kluck. The terse note,…
Global Conflicts — The First ‘World Wars’ Came Long Before 1914
“World War One was not history’s only recorded ‘Great War’.” (Originally published in September, 2013) THIS COMING SUMMER, the world marks a grim milestone – the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World…
