Category Archives: history

France Before the Revolution – For Bastille Day

Posted on July 10, 2020 by toritto

The Queen’s Chamber at Versailles What was it like to be a common man, a member of the Third Estate in the time just before the French Revolution, which was to change the course of European history?  How bad did … Continue reading →

Posted in history | 8 Comments

George Washington Williams, the Congo Genocide and “Crimes Against Humanity”

Posted on June 26, 2020 by toritto

Political cartoon from 1906 showing King Leopold of Belgium entangling the Congolese in rubber coils   So who coined the phrase “Crimes Against Humanity?”  Was it first defined at Nuremberg by the victorious allies?  Or was it used by someone … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Suicide of a Senator – From the Archives – October 2015

Posted on May 28, 2020 by toritto

For those of you who think right wing politics has never been so dirty. Senator Lester Hunt – Democrat – Wyoming This morning while enjoying a second cup of coffee and the company of song birds out on the lanai … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Italy, Libya and Eritrea -From the History Archive

Posted on May 15, 2020 by toritto

A poster from the Fascist era advertising the Tripoli Grand Prix in Italian Libya on   March 7, 1933 -Year eleven of the Fascist dictatorship.  Cost of a ticket?   Lira 12 Muammar Gaddafi  is dead since 2011 and Libya … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Fascist Italy, Adowa and the Conquest of Abyssinia

Posted on May 14, 2020 by toritto

From the History Archives – 2015 Most folks know of fascist Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia in the 1930’s. The conquering of Abyssinia was greeted in Rome with wild celebration culminating in Il Duce’s famous balcony speech from the Palazzo Venezia … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fifty Years Ago – May 4 – Kent and Jackson State

Posted on May 2, 2020 by toritto

  This Monday, May 4, marks the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings involving the killing of 4 unarmed university students by the Ohio National Guard.  It was a time when armed soldiers of the state shot down unarmed … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Dancing in the Eye of the Storm – From the Archives – 2014

Posted on April 23, 2020 by toritto

Tired of my old poetry?   How about some history with pictures! Alexander Ulyanov  – executed by Tsar Alexander III in 1887 Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by an organization known as The People’s Will. Instead of hoped … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“It Was the Best of Times – From the Archives

Posted on March 25, 2020 by toritto

it was the worst of times.” Thus the opening line of Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”  a historical novel set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

A Felon for President – Eugene V. Debs – From the Archives

Posted on March 2, 2020 by toritto

Eugene V. Debs was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1855 to prosperous immigrant parents from Alsace, France.  He attended public schools, dropping out at 14 to take a job on the Vandalia Railroad cleaning grease from freight engines for … Continue reading →

Posted in history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Strange Fruit

Posted on September 22, 2019 by toritto

Abel Meeropol and his sons Robert and Michael play with a train set. Once upon a time, when I was a young teen, the public high schools of New York City were the crown jewels of public education in America.  … Continue reading →

Posted in history | 13 Comments