Dave Does History

On November 7, 1916, the nation did something it had not done since 1832: it reelected an incumbent Democrat Party President to a second term. Woodrow Wilson, who ran his campaign on the slogan, “He kept us out of the war,” pulled out one of the closest elections in US history, albeit without the controversy and rancor of other close races. The biggest issue of the campaign had been the US positio...

On October 31, 1864, Nevada became the 36th State to join the Union (I just got that BB-36 was USS Nevada!). While most States that joined the Union did so with certain conditions that varied with the era in which they were admitted, most of them had similar conditions,  vis-à-vis  republican governments and the banning of slavery and so forth. Nevada on the other hand, was unusual in that its fir...

On December 7, 1941, the bombs rained down on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Of the eight Battleships present that day, seven were put out of action. Two of those, Oklahoma, and Arizona, permanently. The other six Battleships were essentially obsolete. In fact, the very reason that the Battleships were in Pearl Harbor that day was because they were useless to accomplish the task the Navy ne...

On the night of October 14/15, 1781, a combined force of American and French forces stormed two British forts, known as redoubts, that held the right side of the British lines at Yorktown. Behind those forts waited seven thousand or so British troops and their German mercenaries. Leading the assault on Redoubt 10 was Colonel Alexander Hamilton. He had been personally selected by George Washington...

“What is the vice presidency? The Constitution dictates only two duties: casting the deciding vote if the Senate is deadlocked and replacing the president if he dies or is impeached. Apart from waiting for those two things to happen, you made the rest up and were duly forgotten by history. The exception being Aaron Burr, who shot someone, decisively lowering the bar for the rest of us.”  ― Austin...

In the early days of the Pacific War, the Japanese empire seized Wake Island from the United States. It was an epic battle, despite the inevitable outcome. An outnumbered and unsupported Marine garrison held out far longer than anyone imagined that they would. Upon seizing the island, the Japanese removed the Marines, but kept ninety-eight civilian workers, who were forced into slave labor to buil...

This week in 1789, the 1st US Congress approved the first twelve amendments to the Constitution. These twelve amendments were the response to Anti-Federalist position that the Constitution MUST have a Bill of rights. To that end, these twelve amendments listed the specific rights which were to be placed outside of government interference. Further, they would serve to limit the ability of the Gover...

In the debates over the ratification of the US Constitution, the Anti-Federalists often resorted to predictions of the worst case of the future. The understood human nature better than the Federalists did, but they lacked the ability to hope that the American people would rise above that nature. George Washington had strongly supported ratification, but by this day in 1796, he was exhausted. Not j...

It’s one of those “myths” of history, that on September 12, 1962, then President John F. Kennedy stood in Rice Stadium in Houston and announced to a stunned and surprised nation and world that the United States was committing itself to putting a man on the moon – and returning him safely – before the end of the decade. The speech is stirring and it was certainly one of Kennedy’s most noted. What i...

I am a Cold Warrior. I grew up in the heat of it, and for the final decade of it, I was directly involved. It was intense. It was personal, and it left me with a profound sense of accomplishment. But unlike the shelling of Ft. Sumter (1861), or the invasion of Serbia (1914) or the Poland (1939), the actual beginning of the Cold War is a bit more… nebulous. One could argue that the roots of the Col...

The 14th amendments Section 3 prohibition against permanently holding office has NEVER been invoked successfully. Even when it was tried the first time, it ended when Congress took action to change it. Then, in 1918, with World War I raging, a man from Wisconsin found himself charged under the 1917 Espionage Act of saying things that the government said were sedition. He was arrested, tried and co...

Who’s ready for the Presidential Campaign Debate Season? Whoo-hoo!!!! Seriously, I long ago quit watching them because – and I say this with love – they are pointless. Nothing of any substance has been discussed at a debate since 1960, and it gets worse every cycle. Today we are literally watching them not to learn anything of value, but in the hope that – like NASCAR – there will be a giant implo...

In the days following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was confusion and uncertainty in the upper echelons of the Imperial Japanese government. Most of the leadership had deferred the final decision to the Emperor, who told them to “Bear the unbearable.” During the few days of waiting for the Japanese decision, the United States had paused its B-29 led bombing campaign. There ru...

By now you know that either Barbie or Oppenheimer, or possibly both, are the greatest movies ever created in the history film. Already people are talking about follow up films to tell what are known as “origin stories,” but frankly I couldn’t care less about the back-story of Barbie or Ken, or even for that matter Robert Oppenheimer. That said, there would never have been a film on Oppenheimer if...

I am often bemused by so many wannabe tough people proclaiming on social media that they are here to “punch Nazi’s in the face!” More than once I have wondered if they would even recognize a actual Nazi if they were to see one in person? My own experience tells me that they would not, because in today’s world, the attitude is that “ Everyone I don’t like is literally Hitler! “ That said, there was...

Everybody knows *that* guy. You know.. the one who has to keep asking weird questions or making absurd pronouncements when the meeting is wrapping up and everybody wants to leave. It’s almost like they are utterly oblivious and definitely not reading the room. It terms of the Constitutional convention, *that* guy is named George Mason. And while the Convention has a scheduled eleven day break, sta...

In the context of “the United States,” what exactly is a “State?” Today, it seems obvious to us, but remember that in 1776 there were “States” that shared their governor. At least one of the “States” technically wasn’t a State at all, but rather a dubiously area of leased lands, that while it had its own legislative body, it was only because the State that “owned” the land didn’t like the people w...

A few weeks ago, I asked the question, exactly which Framers’ values and principles should we “be getting back to?” As the Convention lurched into the sixth week, and the heat in Philadelphia grew hotter, the delegates were – at least verbally – at each others throats. while the myth of unity still held in the media and even in sermons, the truth was that the convention was literally held together...

There came a time when the political system was unable to deal with the pressures brought on it by the political differences which divided the nation. By April of an election year, there were men who had decided that the moderate course which had guided the nation for four score and four years was no longer acceptable to them. In the arena of politics, calculations were made, votes were counted, a...

As the summer begins to warm the streets of Philadelphia, the temperatures inside the State House begin to rise. While most believe that the convention delegates are “united,” the truth is much, much darker. The “small” States are horrified at the Virginia Plans implications. They see it as nothing less than their compete and utter annihilation. In fact, the ONLY unity among the delegates, is a wi...

One of the things that I have wanted to do for some time is a complete revision of  the Convention Episodes of Constitution Thursday . This summer, except for the three weeks I will be gone, Dave Does History gives me the chance to do just that. For the next few months we will take a weekly look at the things that happened in the Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787. This will not be a word for word...

Once upon a time, NYC was the leader in American dislike for the British. What you gotta understand is that Great Britain and the US were almost thinking about going to war against each other… again. The whole  “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” thing , among other disputes. This time though, it wasn’t the national governments that stopped it.  Still, it the common opinion in America to dislike all thing...

For what seems to be basically an American drinking festival, Cinco de Mayo has become “a lightening rod for controversy*.” A few years ago in California, white students began wearing American Flag t-shirts to school on the day. Of course, this was met with outrage, because… that’s what high school students have learned is the “proper” response to a perceived insult. When t-shirts aren’t the issue...

Admiral Irosuku Yamamoto, the leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was reputed to have once said that he personally would dictate the peace terms to the United States in the Oval Office. As the mastermind behind the the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto was seen as the evil genius behind the successes of the Japanese Navy up through the end of the Guadalcanal Campaign in early 1943. Now, in a desp...

Today, April 11, is the anniversary of the founding of the US Navy’s Submarine Fleet! for one hundred and twenty-three years, US Navy Submariners have carried on the traditions and training of the worlds finest underwater warriors. When the Battleships were stuck in the mud of Pearl Harbor, the Submarines carried the attack to the Empire of Japan. when Missiles piled up on Cuba, US Submarines made...