Category Archives: Great Legacies
John Burns on Britain’s Oldest Warrior He was a 19-year-old private when he was struck by the burst of a German shell over the British trenches in September 1917 and sent home to recover from his wounds. Working as a plumber in Wells until his retirement, he lived to the age of 111 before he [...]
London Times Corazon Aquino was propelled into office as President of the Philippines in an extraordinary sequence of events which began with the assassination of her husband and culminated in the unceremonious ejection of a military dictatorship. In 1986 the country’s ruler, Ferdinand Marcos, declared himself winner of the general election, but the contest had [...]
“We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.” Leszek Kolakowski, Jefferson Lecture 1986 The Economist HIS life was learning—about history, about his times, about himself. Like some other erstwhile true believers, he became one of most cogent critics of his former faith. [...]
From TehranBureau Photos and brief bios of some of the people who died in the post-fraudulent election showdown in Iran Martyred and Murdered This is the grave of Neda Agha Soltan shot on the street by a sniper, when all she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted. Her death, captured [...]
Whittaker Chambers , an American writer and editor, was once a Communist party member and Soviet spy. After he renounced communism, he became an outspoken opponent and became most famous or infamous for his testimony against Alger Hiss ten years later, a U.S. State Department employee whom he accused of being a Soviet spy. In [...]
New York Times John S. Barry, Main Force Behind WD-40, Dies at 84 John S. Barry, an executive who masterminded the spread of WD-40, the petroleum-based lubricant and protectant created for the space program, into millions of American households, died on July 3 in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. He was 84. – [...]
The oldest man in the world, Air Mechanic Henry Allingham , British Veteran of World War I died on Saturday aged 113, in his sleep. John Burns writes the most lyrical obit in the New York Times An iconic figure to many in Britain, Mr. Allingham did wartime service including stints on land, in the [...]
For so long, she was such an icon of glowing health with her million dollar smile and tousled hair that every girl wanted and so did every guy, that it was shocking to learn that she had cancer. Now she’s dead at 52. CNN Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and “Charlie’s Angels” [...]
Neda Agha Soltan, a 27-year-old student of philosophy, became known around the world in a matter of hours through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube because a video captured her death on a street in Tehran Neda falls in the street, shot in the heart by a Basiji sniper. She is laid down by her companions when [...]
Private William Long, newly out of basic training was on a short-term assignment as a military recruiter, was shot three times and killed outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock Arkansas by a domestic jihadist who also wounded another soldier. The alleged killer Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, was born in Tennessee as Carlos Leon [...]
