The burning of Washington and its Capture

Today in history, I will talk about the memorable day which happens in the War of 1812. We knew about the British troop’s campaign against this era for America. But one of the most memorable moments was that of burning of the Whitehouse, the home of the American Presidents. The British militiamen burned the White House this day in history, through the efforts of General Robert Ross. It all started when the American troops was defeated in the Battle of Bladensburg in Maryland and continued their march towards Washington D.C. . . Most of the congressmen that time fled from the area, including President James Madison together with his wife, to whom early in the morning that day, have seen action fighting against the British in the Battle of Bladensburg.

When the British troops arrived, they have dined that night in the White House. And when they realized that they have the hold of the place already, they set the White House in flames, including the area’s private homes, federal buildings, the Congress and the House of Representatives. To most historians, it is in revenge for the American troops burning of Canadian government buildings earlier in the war. The entire city was busted with flames and the structures are almost gone with its ashes. It’s like the city was totally burned down due to the uncontested force for the British

militiamen.

Two days later on August 26, General Ross ordered a withdrawal of their troops in Washington. The next day, President Madison came back from the ravaged and the burned Washington, promising to restore the beauty of the city again. With the help of the original architect of the White House, named James Hoban, help reconstruct the executive mansion and was completed around 1817. The White House was then considered as the home of the most powerful leader in the world centuries after the incident.

Credits: Images from google

The Roanoke Colony ( The vanished colony)

    The mystery has always been a while ever since this world of ours has been created. There are lots of questions still needs some answers, which we never get in over a long period of time. For this time, I am going to write about one of the most mysterious disappearances in history, that even experts, don’t have enough clues as to explain the vanishing of this people. Even though its like centuries ago have past, if we readers are fun of reading mysterious stories, this is one of the best examples to that.

    All the story began in the year 1585 when Sir Walter Raleigh founded the Roanoke Island colony. The first batch of colonist did not do well, with scarcity of food supplies and also some Indian attacks. And by 1586, a year later, they returned back to England. In 1587, another batch has been sent, captained by John White by a group of 100 colonist. And then White returned to England to get more supplies for the colonist. What also delay the come back of White was the war between Spain was going on, making him arrive in the colony in 1590, which he saw no one there.

    White has no clues aside from the word CROATOAN carved in a tree, which refers to an island miles away, which later turns out to be still no clue there. In 1998, a study was conducted and the result was that, there is a terrible drought that happened during the disappearance period, which for some triggered the colonist to flew from the area. Another theory has been viewed that the colonist have been with a tribe named Croatoans. Among those who vanished is Ellinor Dare, White’s daughter, Virginia Dare, White’s granddaughter and the first English child born in America.


Credits: Images from google

The birth of the NBA

             

              

    

    

    On this day in 1949, the National Basketball Association was born. This association was the role model of the basketball world, before we could see the different generation of stars of today. NBA serves as a role model in the sport of basketball. In our country here in the Philippines, even the little kids know much about NBA even to the simplest kind of people, they can name an NBA player, so let's just say that NBA has marked the minds of all people but also in all of our hearts.

    The history starts between the rival of  Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) have dealt with a merge. The BAA established itself in much known larger cities which like Fort Wayne, in Indiana, Sheboygan and Akron in Ohio. The NBL By the 1948-49 season, the BAA had begun to attract some of the country’s best players, and four NBL franchises–Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester–moved to the BAA, bringing their star players.

            

           

    Finally the 2 associations merged in the city of New York to finalized everything. A person who was elected as the head of the new formed league named Maurice Podoloff, who also served as the BAA. It came to a time when NBA from the start was formed with 17 teams, and then around 1954, some teams dwindled, then only 8 teams remained. Because of it, the NBA has changed its rules which gave birth to the 24 second shot clock for every team playing in the court. The association from then on grew from 1960’s to present with 30 franchises already which is praised by people around the world.


Credits: Images from google

The death of Adam Walsh

           

Today I’ll talk about one of the most famous cases of child abduction and murder in the history of the United States. This case struck the American heart, not only that he was young, but the child’s death was just simply unimaginable for parents to bear it. The story starts on a afternoon in July 27, 1981. A boy was suspected to be kidnapped by an unknown assailant in a mall in Florida.

          The boy is known as Adam Walsh, age 6, the son of John Walsh, later to be come one of the leading victims crime activist. Later on, john became the host of America’s Most Wanted.  It all started when his mother allowed him to play video games together withthe group of boys, while she need to have a bathroom break, just 10 minutes after, the boy is gone and nowhere to be found. A massive man hunt was conducted in every area of the mall, searching for AdamWalsh’s body, but they were no results at all. Surprisingly, on August 10, 1981, the boy’s head was discovered in a drainage without it’s body. It was only after 2 years after they had an answer.

          By 1983, a man named Ottis Toole, confessed of the murder.He also implicated one serial murderer named Henry Lee Lucas. Several months later, he led the police to the place where he buried the boy, but it has gone into nothing. He repeatedly took back his story afterit. He died of liver cirrhosis in 1996. Years after it, Jeffrey Dahmer, another known serial killer who is at Florida at that time of the killings, was also considered as one of the suspects.

          Because of this case, John Walsh, the father of Adam, later became a founder of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He then became the host of America’s most Wanted which is the instrument in catching most of the fugitives in America. On July 27, 2006, 25 years after Adam went missing, President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law, which created a national database of convicted child sex offenders.

Credits: Images from google

Bruce Lee died at age 32 on this day

Today, I would like to take you back in the life and achievement of one of the most known and beloved icons in history of this world. In 1960’s this man has created his name towards movies. Especially to the martial arts field, this man has made a blue print or somewhat making the field more colorful and interesting. Probably, all of that generation  has known him well, regarding his movies and also the details of his life as an artist. But also most of us knows, the theories that surrounds its death causes and the question who did it and why.

                               

I’m talking about Jun Fan, popularly known as Bruce Lee. He was born in San Francisco, California on November 27, 1940, to a Chinese opera star who is his father. A yearlater his family moved back in Hong Kong , there he started his career studying dancing and trained in the Win Chun style of gung fu popularly known as kung fu. He then appeared in about 20 films as a child actor. Few years after, he returned to America and meets his wife there named Linda Emery, they married in 1964 and by 1965, there first children was born naming it Brandon Lee. In 1966, Lee appeared in a television program named “Green Hornet” as a sidekick of the Hornet named Kato. From then on he has private clients and also joined karate tournaments around the United States.

                                In 1970’s, Lee went back to Hong Kong and successfully established himself as a star. The movies like “The Big Boss” and also “The Way of the Dragon” as a director, a writer and also starred in the said movie. A film was released in Hollywood called “Enter the Dragon” around August of 1973. This movie became a box office hit. Earning Lee as an icon in America that time, which the movie grossed about 200 million dollars. This was really known and almost watched by most of the Americans.

                         

On July 20, 1973, Lee died one month earlier before the movie was released in Hollywood. His cause of death was ruled out as brain edema caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller.  Lots of speculation came out like Lee was murdered by Chinese gangsters and a even a curse came out as a cause of his death. A curse controversy came out only when his son Brandon Lee died also at a young age of 28.  Brandon died of an accidental shooting on a set of the movie “The Crow” in 1991.  Both of the Lee’s were buried in a cemetery in Seattle Washington.


Credits: Images from google

Yankees owner's death

George Steinbrenner’s death 5 years ago.

                Not all of the filipino’s love watching baseball, maybe because the nation is widely more on the basketball, and it is really that obvious. Probably we Filipino’s knows baseball more specifically on the team monikers and its design which is widely used in clothing and baseball caps. One team that is really that known in baseball ever since, is the team that somehow shape the baseball world, it’s the New York Yankees, which I also featured in my previous blog postings. And this time I’m going to write more on its leadership and also ownership’s history. This particular person is not known worldwide, but is really that remarkable especially in New York, USA.

                 

His name is George Michael Steinbrenner III the long time owner of the Yankees since 1973. George was born on July 4, 1930 in the state of Ohio. He graduated with the Masters Degree in Physical Education, which really meant that he is really into sports. Since that time of his ownership, the team had 7 World series and 11 American league pennants. In 1960’s he started he became an owner of a short-lived basketball team which is the Cleveland Pipers. He also invested on horse racing, broad way shows and other business ventures.

                He had bought the Yankees in 1973 for only about 10 million dollars, which is far away huge than it cost until his death that cost around 1.6 billion dollars. He is known to be dictating the players a lot, involving the haircut measurements and other things which is really that personal. Steinbrenner himself was suspended from the sport twice–first, in 1974, after pleading guilty to making illegal corporate contributions to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign, and a second time, in 1990, for paying a small-time gambler to dig up damaging information about Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield, with whom Steinbrenner was feuding. Steinbrenner and the Yankees also raked in millions from lucrative licensing and marketing deals.

                In 2009, the Yankees won their 27^th World series which considered by some as the most memorable gift that they could offer to their owner before its death. His sons Hal and Hank is the one who manages the team right now. George’s health declined and until such time that he died of a heart attack on July 13, 2010, leaving a legacy along with it’s players.

Credits: Images from google

U.S congress sanctions China

China, in the early part of June of 1989, Chinese troops and police made some actions towards a group of protesters, they smashed and making a sick response towards these people, who wants to voice out about more freedom into their own home land. This even took place in the well-known landmark in Beijing, which is the Tiananmen Square.President George Bush immediately ordered sanctions against the Chinese government, including a ban on arms shipments, the cessation of high-level talks with Chinese officials, and a suspension of talks about nuclear cooperation. Bush hoped that these sanctions would be enough to indicate the American government’s displeasure and anger over the events in Tiananmen Square, but many members of Congress felt that the president had not gone far enough in punishing China for its egregious human rights violations. 

The House of Representation objected most of it and passed a new package of sanctions on this day in June 29, 1989.  It is more clearly viewed that in this new package China would only be sanctioned if only there were assurances that China was making progress in the area of human rights. It is friendlier and is more into the trade relations between the China and the United States. It would took for almost a year before some of the arrested protesters were being released from the prisons. China remained undiminished and somewhat no feelings at all by what their fellow people did to their own people. Most of those sanctions was only put aside and not being raised into discussion and talks about it and what so ever.

To this day, China is again making some violations not to its people, this time, to other territories specifically the West Philippines Sea, treating it as a part of their territory already. This is really clear that they don’t have any evidence stating that its part of China. Most of the people here in our country, hoping that they would not continue making progress in the area and hoping that these matter would later be resolved for the better future of everyone.



Credits: Images from google