ONCE UPON A TIME: HISTORY AND FACTS

The  Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The  Oerlikon 20 mm cannon  is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models employed by both Allied and Axis forces during World War II. Many versions of the cannon are still used today OerlikonEdit In 1927 the  Oerlikon S  was added to the existing product line. This fired a still larger cartridge (20x110RB) to achieve a muzzle velocity of 830 m/s (versus 490 m/s for the original Becker 20x70RB gun), at the cost of increased weight and a reduced rate of fire (280 rpm). The purpose of this development was to improve the performance of the gun as an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon, which required a higher muzzle velocity. An improved version known as the 1S followed in 1930. Three sizes of gun with their different ammunit...

"Was The Trojan Horse Real?" Inside The Historical Debate: By Bernadette Giacomazzo| Erik Hawkins. According to ancient mythology, the Trojan Horse allowed the Greeks to capture the city of Troy, but historians differ on whether this famous wooden beast was actually real or not. According to ancient Greek history, the Trojan horse allowed the war-weary Greeks to enter the city of Troy and finally win the Trojan war. Legend has it that the horse was built at the behest of Odysseus, who hid inside its structure along with several other soldiers to ultimately lay siege to the city. So epic was its construction — and its purpose — that it was forever immortalized in classical works. But did it even exist? In recent years, historians have questioned whether the over-the-top display of Grecian military might was little more than a myth, constructed to make the Greek army seem more like a godly force and less like the mere mortals that they were.  Other classists suggest that the Gr...

These children at the Theresienstadt ghetto and camp appeared to be happy and healthy. But this photograph was part of an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the Nazis. The International Red Cross inspected Theresienstadt on this day in 1944 after Denmark’s government demanded information about Danish Jews imprisoned there. To prepare for the visit, prisoners were forced to plant flowers and install benches and a playground. The Nazis deported thousands of prisoners to Auschwitz to alleviate overcrowding. The visitors saw well-dressed inmates, a soccer game, and musical performances in this “spa town.” Prisoners were pawns in the Nazis' choreographed show. “If anybody would have come two weeks later, there was nothing left. The swings were gone, the playpens were gone, the rocking horses were gone, and the children were gone—all into the gas chambers," said Marianka May, a Theresienstadt survivor. The Nazis resumed deportations after the visit. In total, two-thirds of the 140,000 Je...

  The Top 6 Deadliest Genocides . Throughout human history, there have been several terrible genocides where millions of people lost their lives. These genocides were carried out with deliberate and systematic violence, targeting specific groups based on their ethnicity, religion, or politics. Even though these events are very dark, it’s important to talk about them so that we can prevent them from happening again. The top 7 deadliest genocides in history have left a lasting impact on the world and are still studied, discussed, and debated by historians and scholars today. From the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of 6 million Jews, to the Bengali Genocide, which resulted in the deaths of 3 million people, each of these genocides represents a harrowing chapter in human history. Here, we will examine the shocking reality of the top 7 deadliest genocides that shook the world to its core. 1 Moriori massacre The Moriori people were the indigenous inhabitants of the Chatham Islan...

The Death of Ireland This will be a more personal post than I usually make.  The Great Famine has affected me from the first time I remember hearing about it in primary school. Understanding that it happened and there is nothing that can be done about it filled me with a helplessness which was expressed as anger. As a young child and later as a teenager it was something I was furious with. The famine brought hell to the island of Ireland. The story of those who died has become sterilised, without photos and names to put to the people, the babies and toddlers who were starved of life. Around the world there were gestures made to relieve the hunger but if we can be honest about it, the world failed these people. Worst of all the Irish landowners failed their own people. Each one of us is more likely to carry the tainted blood of those who did nothing than those who died in absolute agony, clutching their sunken chests. This picture is of my sons at a commemoration in East Clare. It i...

The Dunfanaghy Workhouse, Co. Donegal  The Dunfanaghy Poor Law Union was declared on the 20th July 1841.  It covered an area of 200 square miles and was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians.   They represented Ards, Creenasmear, Creeslough, Crossroads, Doecastle, Dunfanaghy, Dunlewey, Gortahork, Magheraclogher and Meenaclady.  The population within the union at the time the 1831 census was taken was 15,793. The new workhouse was built circa 1843 and could accommodate 300 inmates. It opened in June of 1845 at the beginning of the Famine. The workhouse occupied six acres south west of Dunfanaghy; which was purchased in 1842 from Alexander Stewart. The building cost £4,350 plus £855 for fixtures and fittings. A loan was taken from the Poor Law Commissioners, which was then repaid by the local poor rates.  During the great famine of 1845-9, many workhouses were full to overflowing and set up soup kitchens to provide food for those outside.  The Workho...

The Great Leap Forward was one of the most destructive man-made disasters in human history; causing at least 45 million unnecessary deaths. New data became available in the past few years that sheds light on how much worse the damage was than previously believed: “Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and over-take Britain in less than fifteen years. By unleashing China‘s greatest asset, a labour force that was counted in the hundreds of millions, Mao thought that he could catapult his country past its competitors.  Instead of following the Soviet model of development, which leaned heavily towards industry alone, China would ‘walk on two legs': the peasant masses were mobilized to transform both agriculture and industry at the same time convening a backward economy into a modern communist society of plenty for all. In the pursuit o...