On 18 March 1766 the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act to end a major uproar with the colonists in America.
Benjamin Franklin, 1783 attributed to Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802) National Portrait Gallery, London Public Domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
The controversial act was passed on 22 March 1765 and required that every official document produced in the colonies have a British stamp on it. Official documents included legal documents but was expanded to include newspapers and even playing cards. The purpose of the act was to use the money to raise revenues for a standing army. In reaction to it, the Stamp Act Congress was created in the colonies to oppose it in October 1765. Opposition to the impending Stamp Act caused not only outrage but violence as well. Calls to boycott British goods were made and attacks on customhouses and even homes of tax collectors occurred. Benjamin Franklin made a personal appeal to the House of Commons to repeal the act.
Faced with opposition to the Stamp Act, it was repealed but on the same day Parliament passed the Declaratory Act which stated the government had free and total legislative power over the colonies. This set in motion conflict with the colonists who began to assert they ought to have a voice in laws passed by Parliament. The famous phrase “No Taxation Without Representation” would become an important part of the revolt that was coming.
St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland. Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, and St. Patrick, Goleen, County Cork, Ireland Photo:Andreas F. Borchert/Wikimedia
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and known for bringing Christianity to Ireland. He was born in 390 A.D in Britain and raised by a Christian family. However he was not much interested in God and at the time was illiterate. When he was 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he was forced to work as a shepherd on a hillside. All alone except for his sheep and captors. he began to cry out to God for rescue him. He had a dream in which God revealed himself and that he would be going home.
Risking his life, he boarded a ship for Britain where he returned to his family. He was welcomed back but realized that he had been transformed by God. He entered a monastery to pursue his calling as a Catholic priest. As a result of his education, he came to understand Holy Scripture and impressed his peers and superiors with his character. He would be made a bishop in due course. Nearly three decades after this slavery in Ireland, he felt a call from God that he had to return to Ireland and spread the word of Jesus to a people who had become lost. This was no easy journey for him since travel was difficult but he faced hostility from those who opposed him trying to convert people away from paganism. Patrick was ready though to face the trials that might take his life (he was attacked and beaten by thugs and Irish royalty disdained him) and persevered in proclaiming the Gospel and training converts.
His courageous leadership and his crisscrossing the countryside paid off as thousands and more would be converted. Churches were being established and he was training those to shepherd the church after he was gone. He would die on March 17, 461 A.D. He has been venerated as a saint and patron saint of Ireland since then by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches. In Ireland it is a solemnity and thus a holy day of obligation. It is also a cultural day as well to celebrate Ireland. Traditionally many in Ireland will wear shamrocks, wear green, attend Mass, watch parades, have a special breakfast and dinner, and of course celebrate by having a beer in their favorite pub (or outside due to the crowds). It has been a public holiday in Ireland since 1903. Since the feast does fall within Lent and is a solemnity in Ireland, it is permissible to eat foods normally excluded during this time (or any food you have selected to give up). Outside of Ireland though, it is not and local bishops will offer guidance. Usually the bishop will allow those who wish to celebrate to be excused from Friday obligation of fasting but may require you to fast on a different day in the week or the following one.
The Death of Julius Caesar,Vincenzo Camuccini (1771–1844). Public Domain
Today is 15 March and on the old Roman calendar was a day of religious observance to the Roman god Jupiter and other lesser deities. But it is most famous as the date in 44 BC when Julius Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Roman Senate. 60 conspirators were involved but the leaders were Brutus and Cassius. Caesar was forewarned of his death by a seer according to Plutarch. And in his famous work Julius Caesar, Shakespeare has the soothsayer say “beware the ides of March” which Caesar ignores and of course he ends up stabbed to death uttering the famous line before death:
Et tu Brute!
The assassination was a turning point for Rome. It brought about a civil war and ended the Roman Republic. Octavian (later Augustus) would become emperor and the Roman Empire would come to dominate the entire Mediterranean Sea, North Africa, and parts of Europe and Britain. In Julius Caesar Mark Antony gives perhaps the most remembered funeral oration ever done. Most people recall the famous opening line:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.
The oration is masterful in that it cleverly turns the people against Brutus and Cassius by showing they were ambitious and not Caesar. By the end the plebeians call them traitors and murderers.
In real life, it was much the same. Antony played them by seemingly supporting amnesty but turning people against them both. Brutus was forced to leave and ended up on Crete, Cassius went east to gather support among the governors and to amass an army. Antony and Octavian would clash militarily causing divisions in Rome. This allowed the forces of Brutus and Cassius to march on Rome. However Octavian made peace with Antony upon this news so both forces joined to stop Brutus and Cassius. They met at Philippi on 3 Oct 42 BC. The first battle resulted in Brutus defeating Octavian but Antony defeating Cassius. Not knowing that Brutus had defeated Octavian, Cassius took his own life. At the second battle of Philippi on 23 October, Brutus was defeated and forced to flee into the hills where he committed suicide. Antony treated his body with great respect by having it wrapped his most expensive purple mantle. His body was cremated and remains sent to his mother.
Pere Marquette 18 passing under the State Street Bridge in Chicago while being towed. Photo: 1910 U.S. Library of Congress digital id# det.4a18153 Public Domain (via Wikipedia)
On 9 September 1910, the SS Pere Marquette 18, bound from Ludington to Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, would sink with 27 dead and leaving a mystery as to why she sank.
The SS Pere Marquette was built in 1902 by the American Ship Building Company (Cleveland, Ohio) as a railroad car ferry. The Pere Marquette Railroad Company intended to use her to cross Lake Michigan between the western ports of Kewaunee, Manitowoc, and Milwaukee with the eastern side where Ludington, Michigan was located. With four railroad car tracks, it could accommodate up to thirty railroad cars. It has had fifty staterooms (and other rooms as well) to carry up to 260 passengers as well. However, if you combined both the rooms and the decks it could hold up to 5.000 people. It had a maximum speed of between 13-14 knots (15 or 16 mph).
Between 1907-1909, the ship was converted into an excursion steamer that carried people to events or around Lake Michigan. The railroad tracks were covered over by planking. Despite the ship’s popularity as an excursion steamer, it did not generate the profits hoped by the company, so they did not renew any contracts for the upcoming 1911 pleasure cruise season. It was converted back into a railroad car ferry and on 8 September 1910, she was back in service in that capacity when she departed Ludington, Michigan. She had 62 passengers and crew, 29 rail cards and miscellaneous freight. Around 3 or 4 am the next morning, the helmsman noted the ship was steering properly. An oiler checking on the propeller around the same time noticed water in the stern and reported it to the bridge. He reported 7 feet of water in the stern. Captain Kitty ordered the pumps be turned on, but that did not work, and the stern continued to sink so low that water was coming in through the portholes. Kitty changed the heading to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and had some railroad cars dropped in the water to give the ship more buoyancy. That seemed to work for a while but eventually the stern started sinking again.
Wireless operator Stephen F. Szczepanek was ordered to send the distress call, CQD, to all ships in the area. He sent the message “Car ferry No.18 sinking – help!” for the next hour. Aboard the Pere Marquette 17, it heard the distress call and notified the captain. The ship immediately headed towards the sinking car ferry. It would pull alongside and rendered assistance to those trying to leave the sinking ship. Two other ships would also arrive on the scene: the Pere Marquette 20 and the tug A.A.C. Tessley arrived on scene to assist as well. Sadly, the wireless operator never made it off ship and was the first wireless operator to perish on the Great Lakes. None of the senior officers survived as well making it more difficult to ascertain exactly what happened.
The ship sank at 7:30 am stern first and the bow rising high into the air. An explosion occurred as she sank, likely caused the pressure of air trapped inside her and likely taking lives with it. 27 lives were lost along with 2 from the Pere Marquette 17. The actual cause of the sinking has never been determined though several theories by investigators and others have been brought forward.
Hard dockings
During the time she served as a excursion steamer, the charter captains treated her roughly and hit pilings when she docked.
Steel Plates issue
Another possible cause is that the steel plates had become loose and since they were underwater allowed water to enter the ship.
No Stern Gate
Older ferries like the Pere Marquette 18 had no rear stern gate to prevent water from entering during storms or heavy wave action.
Stowaways
There were two stowaways aboard, but no one has any idea if they played a role in the sinking.
Leaking Propellor
This would be due to the propellor or its components allowing water into the ship.
Aftermath
The ship was valued at $400,000 and her cargo somewhere between $100,000-$150,000. Captain Kitty was criticized for trying to save his ship and not the people aboard her. In New York City, a memorial was erected in Battery Park in 1915 with the names of wireless operators who had died at sea. Stephen F. Szczepanek is on it right below Jack Phillips, who died on Titanic. Szczepanek was remembered by journalist J. Andrew White as remaining calm, reassuring passengers that help was coming, and returning to the wireless room to continue sending messages. The company would replace the lost ship and name it Pere Marquette 18 that entered service in 1911 and worked until 1952. It was sold for scrap in 1957.
The wreck of the Pere Marquette 18 lies 25 miles off Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 500 feet of water. Until she was found in 2020, she was the largest undiscovered shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
March 6, 1912: Titanic (right) had to be moved out of the drydock so her sister Olympic (left), which had lost a propeller, could have it replaced. Robert John Welch (1859-1936), official photographer for Harland & Wolff Public domain
“While Titanic was the largest man-made object afloat in 1912, it could easily fit inside today’s mega cruise ships.” Titanic measured 269m in length while the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas, measures a whopping 362m. London’s Shard is 310m so is easily dwarfed by Wonder of the Seas although Titanic was smaller. Titanic had three classes onboard, first, second and third. Sheryl told Express.co.uk what passengers in each class could expect.
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Titanic Grave markers at Fairview Cemetery Halifax N.S William B. Grice (Wikimedia)
In the dark days after the tragedy, the Nova Scotia capital became chief mourner, coroner and undertaker. “It gathered, identified and buried the bodies, and it did so with great diligence and respect,” British newspaper The Daily Telegraph said in 2012 during the 100-year memorial events. “The poignant tales of love and loss uncovered in the process ensure that the sinking is remembered, not just as a historic event, but as a human tragedy on a colossal scale.”
A documentary telling the story of six Chinese Titanic survivors will play at the Beloit International Film Festival, featuring the story of a local restaurant owner’s family. “The Six,” which follows six Chinese natives rescued from the freezing North Atlantic after the sinking of the Titanic, will have one of its first US showings in Beloit. According to BIFF executive director Greg Gerard, finding the film has been a fun process among the local community. “It turns out that there’s a person who was on the Titanic that’s buried in a cemetery in Beloit. I mean, these things we we never knew about before are coming to light. So it’s kind of it’s been very fun,” Gerard said
In the immediate aftermath, a swirl of rumour, fake news, and conspiracy theories sprang up; was the ship’s state of the art design riddled with mistakes, were engineers rushed to complete it by its wealthy owner, did the needs of insurers come before saving souls, and was it an iceberg that caused the disaster? Northern Irish playwright Ron Hutchinson, whose grandfather helped build the doomed ship, spotlights these conspiracies in Ghosts of The Titanic, which blends fact with fiction as a bereaved woman tries to discover the truth about her fiancee’s death.
At the Titanic Museum of Pigeon Forge the decorations and crew celebrate March with the Irish Fairy Cottages. On the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic there were 187 Irish on-board the ship and the Titanic Museum of Pigeon Forge pays homage to these individuals with their March decor. When you visit the museum, keep an eye out because there are some new additions that are truly remarkable. There are five Irish Fairy Cottages throughout the tour and each has it’s own personality and theme, not to mention that each has been hand-crafted and therefore one-of-a-kind.
When a new cemetery is established on dry land, the grounds are thoughtfully curated. But when a ship is lost without warning, there’s no time for such plans. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website observes, accidental shipwrecks “show the past as it really was” by “preserving a single moment in time.” Sunken vessels captivate us. They inspire grief, wonder, romance—and horror. Here are stories of famous ships that went under, leaving a changed world in their wakes.
An initiative to send two Indigenous artists to the Titanic site is aiming to help commemorate the site and raise interest among Indigenous people in maritime careers. It’s very important that the expedition captures the last days of the Titanic as it slowly dissipates,” said Shayne McDonald, director of Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services, a joint business venture between Miawpukek First Nation and Horizon Maritime Services that offers marine services like tugboats and subsea cable repair and maintenance. It’s a unique story in history, and as we keep it alive, we keep alive the stories of the individuals that died on the voyage.”
One of the deadliest train disasters in railroad history occurred during World War II in Italy when over 500 people would suffocate to death.
It began simply enough. On the evening 2 March 1944 freight train 8017 left Salerno, Italy to a rural area south of the city. This required it to pass through the Galleria delle Amri Tunnel Pass just outside Balvano. Although a freight train, it was common for a lot of civilian and military people to hop on the next convenient train. By the time the train had reached Balvano, the last train stop between the two long tunnels in the Apennines Mountains. it had 650 people aboard. It reached the stop near midnight and had to stop for maintenance.
At ten minutes to 1 am, the train began its ascent into the Galleria delle Amri. The tunnel was poorly ventilated with 1.3% grade. Not long after entering the tunnel the train came to complete stop for 30 minutes. The exact reasons are still unclear. Either the train could not pull the overloaded freight cars, or it was waiting for another train to exit from the opposite direction. Some argue that humidity had caused the train wheels to slip, and sandboxes were not helping.
Unfortunately, due to wartime restrictions, the train was burning low grade coal which produced a lot of excess and odorless carbon monoxide.
The train driver tried to reverse the train but fainted before he could accomplish it. An additional complication was that it was a two-locomotive set up. The driver in lead car could not communicate with the driver in the other one as they were not the same locomotive model. That driver was still trying to push forward. A brakeman walked back to Balvano getting there about 05:10. Quickly a locomotive was dispatched and got there by 0525. It was too late. Many people had exited the freight cars hoping to find better air in the tunnel and died there. There were so any corpses on the rails prevented it from removing the train. About 40 people in the last freight cars were alive. A second rescue mission at 08:40 was able to bring the train back to Balvano. The only train crew to survive was the brakeman and a fireman from the second locomotive.
Due to wartime restrictions, the US and Italians kept it out of the news. A commission was established to determine what happened. Blame was put on the low-quality coal and the station masters tolerating stowaways. The Italian railway company, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, declined all responsibility owing to the end of the war setup between the Italians and US. The Ministry of Treasury, in order to quell criticism, issued compensation to identified civilians (but it occurred 15 years later). A limitation on freight tonnage was introduced and the use of both diesel and steam locomotives for such routes were introduced, Steam engines were banned in 1959 and the line was electrified in 1996. Except for the train crew, the stowaways were buried in four common graves in Balvano cemetery.
Ash Wednesday by Carl Spitzweg (1808–1885) Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
What is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is one of the most important dates on the Christian calendar. It opens the Lenten season, a time of fasting and prayer for Christians. The Lenten Season goes from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday. According to Catholic Online, it comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, which includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes remind that God made man from and to dust you shall return. The ashes also symbolize grief and that we have turned from God in our sin.
As a Christian day of fasting and repentance, many will attend church services and receive ashes on their foreheads. Most Western Christian denominations observe the day (Anglicans, Catholics, Lutherans, Moravians, Methodists, and Nazarenes to name a few). Fasting usually consists of two small meals and one large meal (usually dinner) that is simple rather than ostentatious or luxurious. Eating meat is also forbidden (beef, pork, poultry and related) but fish is allowed. Catholics will fast on every Friday until Easter Sunday except when it is a solemnity. It is also a time where observants will give up something for the Lenten season. Sometimes it can be a food or activity (like watching television). In more strict observances, a strictly vegetarian diet is observed for the Lenten season that often excludes dairy products.
Belfast’s part in the story would likely have faded into the background had the ship’s story run a normal course. The same would have been the case for Queenstown, later Cobh. And Addergoole in County Mayo would have been off the map altogether, though some in the village might have harbored memories of family members having once sailed to America on a ship named, well, didn’t its name begin with a T?
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Afternoon Tea by Francisco Miralles Galup (1848-1901) Public Domain
Can you imagine finding out some tea cups you bought at yard sale were actually related to Titanic? Well in this case, it happened. The cups were made for the White Star Line. They may never have been on Titanic but perhaps used on Olympic or Brittanic.
“Not the Titanic, that would be quite difficult. If they were from the Titanic, I would be standing back and saying these are worth a lot of money.” But they could have been from the Olympic or the Britannic the sister-ships, which of course, were virtually the same,” he continued. “And all the White Star Lines had this White Star china. These were from the first-class accommodation so if you went down for breakfast, afternoon tea, these are the cups you drink from.
Ballard will always be remembered for Titanic but did find a lot of other ships and uncovered a lot of information about the undersea world
Ballard would go on to find numerous shipwrecks, but his greatest achievement: “We found a whole other life system that was living not off the sun, but the energy of the earth itself,” he said. At 79, Ballard said he’s still discovering new things – even about himself. He realized late in life that he has dyslexia. “It’s a gift that I was able to turn into a gift,” he said. Ballard believes it forced him to think differently and face failure, which he calls the greatest teacher of all. “And so that’s the message. Don’t let them knock you down and keep you down. Get up. You’ll be fine,” he said.
The stories of two working class Brits who survived the Titanic have been pieced together for the first time. The sinking 110 years ago cost 1,517 people their lives. But while some 60% of first class passengers were saved, only 25% of those in third class made it – and just 207 of the 892 crew. But the survival stories of two on board, a ladies’ maid and a ship’s stoker, have been unravelled for a new series of Tony Robinson’s History of Britain on Channel 5.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it! “(George Santayana-1905)
Nevile Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Count Ciano 29 Sep 1938 (German Federal Archives)
What is going on today regarding the Ukraine recalls one of the greater mistakes made prior to the outbreak of general war in 1939. Hitler had been in power since 1933 and re-fashioned the new German state on the ideas of National Socialism based on the Italian version of fascism. This new Germany began to rebuild itself fast repudiating the limitations of the Versailles Treaty imposed on them. Everything was changed to conform to the new order from education to what music they could listen to. Religious schools were shuttered forcing all children to attend public schools where the ideals of the new order would be taught. The Nazi’s (a shortening of a much longer name of the political party) had a special desire to exclude those who did not fit into their idea of what a person was. Jewish people were the top targets along with a long list of others (Polish, Gypsies, anyone of African descent, homosexuals, pacifists etc.) With full control of the print, radio, and film media, everyone got the party line no matter where they went. Opposition media was silenced and only by listening to forbidden foreign radio could you learn what was going on.
Despite how Germany broke its agreements, not one of the major powers (France, Great Britain, or the United States) officially said much nor really try to stop them (such as when they marched into the Rhineland on 7 Mar 1936)) Sure there were some politicians or opinion writers who expressed alarm and concern, but no one really cared at that point what Winston Churchill had to say since his own party ignored him. Nazi leaders were ecstatic when in August 1936 the world came to see the summer Olympics. They were pleased to show the world how much Germany had come back from its defeat after World War I. Sure people criticized holding the Olympics in a country that was violently antisemitic, but it went on anyway giving the Nazi’s a platform to show off the new Germany to the world. And many bought into it and even admired Hitler, with all his faults, for his accomplishments.
As Germany re-armed, it looked to expand its frontiers and bring into being a Greater Germany. Hitler was Austrian and both countries had close ties sharing a common language and culture. Many in Austria already supported such an idea long before the Nazi’s came into power. The Nazi’s had tried in 1934 in supporting a coup attempt, but it failed. By 1938 Germany was in a better position. Politicians and groups sympathetic to Hitler and unification in Austria were loudly calling for it. Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg hoped that a referendum on the issue set for 13 March 1938 would resolve. Hitler instead threatened to invade and through his agents asked him to resign. The referendum was canceled and on 12 Mar 1938, German troops entered Austria and were unopposed. The long-wanted Anschluss had finally occurred. Neither Great Britain nor France was willing to offer any assistance to stop it from happening. In fact, many uttered support for it.
That brings us to the events of the Munich Conference of September 1938. Around the same time that Austria was being swallowed up, Hitler began also saying that the German speaking people in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia wanted closer times with Germany. He began speaking publicly that this region should also be part of the Greater Germany as well. And he ominously spoke of forcibly acquiring if Czechoslovakia did not hand this area over to him. Austria had been taken without a fight and in London and Paris there was concern of a real war that might break out. The position of both governments was to avoid total war; they did not want another World War I that devastated Europe. This policy of appeasement had many supporters in politics, academia, and the media. Those who argued against it were called warmongers, or worse. The problem was that both countries had signed treaties with Czechoslovakia that if they were attacked, their enemy became theirs.
They simply decided to abandon it by negotiating with Germany without any consultation with the Czechoslovakian government. They made a deal in which any area where fifty percent or more of German Sudetens that it would go to Germany. Hitler though sensed correctly that both the British (led by prime minister Neville Chamberlain) and the French (premier Édouard Daladier) were willing to give up more if it meant avoiding war. He knew the French had the best trained troops on the continent and the British an excellent navy. Yet neither were willing to put any of that up as a possible stop to his ambitions. They never offered that they would defend Czechoslovakia if he did not make a deal to avoid war. That was not ever on the table and Hitler knew he could get want he wanted just by making threats.
By threatening to move German troops into Czechoslovakia, he forced the British and French to call for a conference to settle the issue. And that begot the Munich Conference of 29 Sept 1938 in which the British, French, Italians, and Germans attended to find a peaceful solution to this crisis. Absent from this was anyone the Czechoslovakian government. The British and French agreed to hand over the area demanded by Hitler to Germany. The Czechoslovakians were told they had to accept or be invaded. It was a great victory for Hitler. Two great powers had groveled before him giving him land that had rich industrial resources that would feed the German war machine.
Neville Chamberlain was welcomed back to resounding applause in Britain. The agreement got applause from many in Parliament, academia, and the press. The public seemed to like it as well. After Chamberlain got off his plane and read the statement signed by Hitler, he famously said it was “peace in our time.” Other leaders in Europe breathed a sigh of relief thinking it would curtail German ambitions. It was one of the greatest misjudgments in history and that clip would famously show how Chamberlain was duped by a tyrant. That image would become so ingrained that appeasement completely fell out of the vocabulary only being used in history books or to accuse someone of going down that dangerous path again.
Czechoslovakia was abandoned by its allies. In October 1938, it was forced to hand over under the Vienna Award territory in its south to Hungary and a small concession to Poland. In March 1939, after Slovakia seceded to become a pro-German state, Hitler demanded Czechoslovakia accede to German occupation, which it did. Czechoslovakia then became a protectorate of the Third Reich. Churchill had warned the Munich Agreement was a bad omen and it proved accurate. Both the British and French handed Hitler his prize on a plate without him ever firing a shot. With his taking over Czechoslovakia, it showed how appeasement was a failed policy.
In both countries, and in other European capitals, it became obvious Germany was on the move to expand with its growing military power. Suddenly the prospect of real war became a reality. Chamberlain had to change policy and start agreements with other countries to deter Hitler. But the die was cast, and war would come officially in September 1939. This time the British and French offered their support to Poland if Germany invaded. Hitler was not worried as neither power moved any military in defense of Poland. His only worry was the French. If they moved against him while the bulk of his troops were in the east, it would be a big problem. He gambled-and he was right-that the French would not launch an attack as they did not want war yet. Both countries did declare war on Germany as the result of invading Poland, but they did nothing to stop it.
The lesson from what happened in Munich still applies today. You negotiate from strength and not from weakness. Once Hitler knew neither of the great powers would do anything to stop him, he pretty much could get everything he wanted since he knew they wanted to avoid war and willing to sacrifice Czechoslovakia. Had Chamberlain showed up saying they would blockade German ports, cut them off from the world-wide banking system if he did this, Hitler would have had to pause to consider his options. Perhaps he would have backed away. We will never know. If you are foolish enough to take off the table anything that will deter the aggressor, and only threaten to punish after the fact, it is not likely to work. Everyone knew Germany would invade Poland, but no one knew when and were dumbfounded by the pact between German and the Soviet Union that divided up that country. Stalin too was fooled by Hitler and shows even other tyrants can be foolish as well.
As we march into another European war, our leaders better remember the lessons of Munich. It led to a long brutal war that tore Europe apart leaving wounds to this day that have not completely healed. And six million Jews dead because those same leaders also foolishly thought it just careless words he wanted to rid the world of Jews.
A historic adventure at the Titanic Museum
