While being the county seat is important, it is probably not worth fighting a war over. However, for the people of Stevens County, Kansas, the decision for county seat turned violent, and culminated in the Hay Meadow Massacre, where four men were killed in cold blood. This is the story of the Hay Meadow Massacre.

Sources

https://www.ksgenweb.org/KSStevens/haymeadow.html

https://digging-history.com/2014/07/24/feudin-and-fightin-friday-the-hay-meadow-massacre/

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haymeadow_massacre.png

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At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Adolph Hitler hoped to demonstrate to the world the power, majesty and superiority of the resurgent German nation. That, however, would be foiled by a 22-year old African American track and field athlete - who would put on one of the greatest displays in Olympic history. This is the story of Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympic Games.

Sources

https://jesseowens.com

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/owens/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesse_Owens_1936.jpg

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Wars can drag on for years. Others might last only a few months, a couple of weeks, or even a handful of days. And then there was the Anglo-Zanzibar war - a conflict that lasted a record setting 38 minutes.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Shortest-War-in-History/

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marines_in_zanzibar.jpg

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Do you ever sit at your computer and look at the keyboard and wonder - how did we get here? Why are the letters laid out in such a jumbled mess? Why is the J easier to type than the E? That’s just one of many questions we tackle as we look at the history of what today we call the QWERTY keyboard.

Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFkC3F0lmjA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-qwerty-keyboard-will-never-die-where-did-the-150-year-old-design-come-from-49863249/

Image: By Martin Howard: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Remington_2_typewriter_keyboard.jpg

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Today, the most famous statue that overlooks a harbor is probably the Statue of Liberty. However, over 2,000 years ago a statue almost as large was built in the Greek city of Rhodes. The Colossus of Rhodes so impressive it became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colossus-of-Rhodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colossus_of_Rhodes.jpg

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In 2014, the financially troubled city of Flint, Michigan, began drawing their water from the Flint River - instead of Lake Huron. The move would be a disaster. Over the next decade the city would grapple with water contamination, lead poisoning, Legionnaires disease, and deaths - costing Flint and the State of Michigan more than a billion dollars.

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/casper/php/publications-links/flint-water-crisis.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

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With the upcoming "Odyssey" movie, by Christopher Nolan, we wanted to ask, is it true? Well of course not. But the background of the story, the Trojan War and the city of Troy, might just have some basis in reality. Because not only have archeologists discovered what they believe to be the real life Troy, but there is also some evidence of a Trojan War.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy

https://www.worldhistory.org/troy/

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Domenico_Tiepolo_-_The_Procession_of_the_Trojan_Horse_in_Troy_-_WGA22382.jpg

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On May 27, 1905, the Russian and Japanese fleets faced off in the Tsushima Strait during the Russo-Japanese War. It is the first modern naval battle - and described as the greatest and the most important naval event since Trafalgar - a century earlier. It also ushered in Japan as a world power - and helped sow the seeds of the end of Czarist Russia. This is the story of the battle of Tsushima.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima

https://www.history.navy.mil/get-involved/essay-contest/2020-winners/hageman-cno-essay.html

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Tsushima,_1905_by_Tōjō_Shōtarō.jpg

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For untold years the tropical paradise of Lord Howe Island was home to the enormous insect called the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, or Land Lobster - an 8-inch long bug endemic to the island. But they went extinct shortly around 1918 - at least until 2001, when just a few dozen were found on a virtually uninhabitable rock a dozen miles away.

Sources

"Rediscovery of the ‘extinct’ Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation" by David Priddel et al.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-15/lord-howe-island-stick-insect-discovery-balls-pyramid/106381564

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lord_Howe_Island_stick_insect_Dryococelus_australis_10June2011_PalmNursery.jpg

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In World War II the United States took a unique turn in their quest for delivering fast, secret communications in combat situations. This was by using Native American language speakers and translators to deliver simple, yet unbreakable coded messages on the front lines. This is the story of the Navajo Code Talkers.

Sources

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/n/code-talkers.html

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers

https://www.intelligence.gov/publics-daily-brief/publics-daily-brief-articles/navajo-nation-inventors-of-the-unbreakable-code

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker

File:Navajo_Indian_communication_men_with_the_Marines_on_Saipan_landed_with_the_first_assault_waves_to_his_the_beach._-_NARA_-_532526.tif?page=1

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When Paraguay invaded its much larger neighbors in 1864, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay responded in force. For the next five years these nations waged the deadliest war ever seen on the continent. It was a war that saw 20 percent of Paraguay's entire population die. This is the story of the Paraguayan War.

Sources

https://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3585/1/B28_-_The_Paraguayan_War_%281864-1870%29.pdf

https://read.uolpress.co.uk/read/brazil/section/0c2155f3-0885-42c3-afda-319d122d8b63

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batalha_de_Campo_Grande_-_1871.jpg

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