Archive for 2020
History of 2020: It Wasn’t the Beginning of the New Decade?
2020: IT WASN’T THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW DECADE? With the beginning of the 2020 New Year, you saw articles everywhere that discussed the end of the decade or declared that 2020 was the beginning of the new decade. But 2021 is the beginning of the new decade. Q: Isn’t 2020 the beginning of…
Read MoreHistory of Coronavirus: How Will It End?
HISTORY OF CORONAVIRUS: HOW WILL IT END? On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization to the first COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., making the Pfizer-BioNTech injection the first to be administered. Yesterday, the FDA also approved the second candidate from Moderna-BioNTech. While having a vaccine is a necessary…
Read MoreHistory of Beethoven: 250th Anniversary — 5 Things You Didn’t Know
HISTORY OF BEETHOVEN: 250TH ANNIVERSARY — 5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW The renowned German composer and virtuoso pianist Ludwig van Beethoven celebrates his 250th anniversary today. Anniversary of what? Here are 5 things you may not have known about the famous composer who came to fame between the Classical and Romantic periods of European music. …
Read MoreHistory of How Pandemics End: Implications for Today’s COVID-19
HISTORY OF HOW PANDEMICS END: IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY’S COVID-19 With the COVID-19 pandemic on everyone’s mind, the natural question is: How have pandemics ended in the past… and what can we learn from these historical lessons? As a follow-up to the article I wrote at the beginning of the COVID “lockdown” back in March,…
Read MoreHistory of the First Thanksgiving Proclamation
HISTORY OF THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION – JUNE 20, 1676: On June 20, 1676, the governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best to express thanks for the good fortune that had seen their community securely established. By unanimous vote, they instructed Edward Rawson, the clerk and first secretary of the…
Read MoreHistory of Vaccines: What This Means For Coronavirus
HISTORY OF VACCINES: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CORONAVIRUS Today, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they are submitting their Coronavirus vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Approval. What are vaccines, when were they first developed, and what is the road to an approved vaccine in today’s world? “Vaca” in the word vaccine sounds…
Read MoreHistory of Hamilton – The Musical
HISTORY OF HAMILTON – THE MUSICAL Hamilton – The Musical, how accurate historically is the recent Broadway blockbuster, currently available on Disney+ TV? It’s based on the 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, but does Hamilton – The Musical compare favorably to the actual history? The Set-Up As an aficionado of musical…
Read MoreHistory of the Summer of Love — 1967: Part 3, Drugs
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: DRUGS When I was a Resident Assistant at Berkeley in the early ’70s, a local police officer I knew gave me a tour down Telegraph Avenue. He told me: “All the major drug deals on the West Coast go down within a two-block stretch of Telegraph Avenue.…
Read MoreHistory of Hitachi: Founders Day, from 1910
HISTORY OF HITACHI: FOUNDERS DAY, FROM 1910 The multinational conglomerate Hitachi, Ltd., traces its history back to Namihei Odaira, a 19th-century pioneering electrical engineer. In Japan, during the Meiji Era of the late 1800s, with the move from a feudal society to an industrialized nation-state, the country wanted to take their place among the nations…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau — a Personal Reflection
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU, a Personal Reflection On April 29, 1945, 75 years ago, toward the end of World War II, the Allies captured and liberated Dachau. My father, Staff Sergeant John Petro, was one of the liberators. It was one of the few stories from The War that my father told me…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau: Present Day. Part 3
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: Present Day. Part 3 In Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and Dachau. In Part 2, I talk about my father’s involvement in the liberation as part of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division and his subsequent capture of the Nazi general in charge of Munich’s anti-aircraft artillery. Epilogue:…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau: April 30, 1945. Part 2
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: APRIL 30, 1945. Part 2 In Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and the initial movement of US Army divisions into Dachau. Dachau: The Camp As my father and the 42nd “Rainbow” Division moved into the Dachau Concentration Camp, of the 32,000 survivors still alive in the…
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