28 JULY 1861 CONFEDERATE PRIVATEER PETREL When South Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 December 1860, the State’s officials seized Federal property including the US Revenue Cutter Service schooner WILLIAM AIKEN, 2, who had operated out of Charleston since 1855. Read More
22-25 JULY 1797 NELSON’S ARM The Treaty of Lldefonso on 19 August 1796 allied Spain with France in Napoleon’s war against England. Now the combined French/Spanish navies of 38 ships-of-the-line threatened England’s Royal Navy’s control of the seas. A February 1797 Read More
18 JULY 1947 TRUST TERRITORIES OF THE PACIFIC Ferdinand Magellan made the first European contact with South Pacific Micronesia in 1521. Though Magellan didn’t survive this contact, Spain’s subsequent colonization of the Philippines and their trans-Pacific galleon traffic cemented Iberian control Read More
12 JULY 1794 NELSON’S EYE The French Revolution in 1789 shocked the rest of Europe as existing monarchies feared the spread of republicanism. Dread intensified as the “Reign of Terror” unfolded, and French King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, prisoners in Read More
1992-PRESENT THE TROUBLE IN BOSNIA Bosnia-Herzegovina, the central-most state in the former Yugoslav nation, is a melting pot of all the diverse Yugoslavian cultures. Serbians, Croatians and Balkan Muslims each control their respective regions of Bosnia–a close association that has bred Read More
25 JUNE-5 JULY 1991 THE 10-DAY WAR The culturally diverse and ethnically proud peoples of eastern Europe’s Balkan region have been subjected to domination for centuries. Between 600-650 AD, Slavics from further east gained control, in particular, Yugoslavs moved into Serbia, Read More