Posts by billpetro
History of the Fall of the Roman Empire: the Short Version
HISTORY OF THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE On September 4, 476 AD, Odoacer captured the city of Ravenna and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus, marking the Fall of the Roman Empire. What do we mean by the Fall of the Roman Empire?
Read MoreHistory of September: The Start of Fall
HISTORY OF SEPTEMBER You may have noticed that September sounds like the Latin word for Seven. And you’d be perceptive — septem is the Latin word for seven, and this month used to be the seventh month of the ancient Roman calendar. This Latin numbering follows with the year’s remaining months, as highlighted below: eight/oct,…
Read MoreHistory of Labor Day: What’s Work Got To Do With It?
HISTORY OF LABOR DAY Labor Day is when we celebrate the process our mothers went through to deliver us at birth. Sorry, wrong holiday. Labor Day in the U.S. is the day we celebrate the achievements of the American labor movement. While it is still disputed whether Peter J. McGuire first proposed the holiday, the…
Read MoreHistory of Blue Moon
HISTORY OF BLUE MOON “Do you see that full moon in the sky tonight? That happens once in a blue moon.” Scientifically, this happens 7 times in 19 years or about once in 3 years. I first wrote about this on July 31, 2015. We had blue moons in January and March 2018 and…
Read MoreHistory of St Augustine
HISTORY OF ST AUGUSTINE The Feast of Saint Augustine is August 28, the date of his death in 430 A.D. Augustine is the most influential bishop in history. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and several cities and dioceses worldwide. Most of what we know about him is from his own writings:…
Read MoreHistory of I Have A Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. – 60 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH It was 60 years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. It continues to echo down the halls of history six decades later. On August 28, 1963, the occasion for his speech was the March on Washington at the…
Read MoreHistory of the 19th Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote, 103 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE 19TH AMENDMENT: WOMEN’S RIGHT TO VOTE Over a hundred years ago, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. This prohibited both the Federal and State governments from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States based on sex. Effectively, this meant that the…
Read MoreHistory of the California Gold Rush: How It Created the State
HISTORY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH: HOW IT CREATED THE STATE On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald reported the news along the American East Coast of the California Gold Rush. It was not new news to those further West, as the gold rush had started in January and was publicized in San Francisco…
Read MoreHistory of Woodstock: Over 50 Years Ago
HISTORY OF WOODSTOCK August 15 marks the anniversary of the “3 Days of Peace & Music” held in 1969 at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York, southwest of the village of Woodstock. This outdoor music event, despite thundershowers, gave voice to the counterculture youth generation of its time.…
Read MoreHistory of the IBM PC: 42 Years Ago – Why It Was So Important
HISTORY OF THE IBM PC: 42 YEARS AGO Forty-two years ago, the IBM PC was released. On August 12, 1981, IBM announced its first “personal computer,” though it had previously been famous for its IBM System/370 mainframe computer. I operated one of these mainframes in a raised-floor data center in the early ’80s.
Read MoreHistory of Infinity Day: Why is it on August 8
HISTORY OF INFINITY DAY: AUGUST 8 Infinity Day is also known as Universal & International Infinity Day. It is a commemoration held on the 8th day of the 8th month of each year to celebrate and promote Philosophy and Philosophizing for the ordinary person. Why 8 is significant, apart from Infinity Day 8 planets…
Read MoreHistory of a Sturgeon Supermoon: Once in a Blue Moon?
History of a Sturgeon Supermoon You may have noticed we’re presently experiencing a full moon. But it is not your typical, ordinary, usual full moon. It’s a supermoon, or more precisely, a Sturgeon Supermoon. What makes a supermoon? Supermoons are bigger and brighter than your typical run-of-the-mill full moon. The one we see this…
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