The Happy Historian

  • Home
  • The Happy Historian

The Happy Historian In-depth videos, discussions, and captions from your friendly neighborhood historian, Kevin Earley.

01/09/2025

After a couple days off, we are back with…

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 1st, 1939:

After pleas from the west fall on decidedly deaf ears, and a non-aggression pact with Stalin’s Soviet Union to secure his eastern border, Adolf Hi**er orders the full-scale German invasion of Poland. The blitzkrieg that will overrun most of Europe over the next two years begins, and after British and French ultimatums to get Germany out of Poland fail, both countries declare war on Germany. World War II is officially on. By the summer of 1940, Hi**er will control everything from central Poland to the beaches of France, as far north as Norway, and as far south as the Balkans. He will attack the Soviet Union in 1941, and will declare war on the United States later that same year, two blunders that will cost him his power in 1945, but it all starts here with his ambitions in Poland. More on that later.

29/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 29th, 1779:

In 1779, the Continental Congress and General George Washington, concerned about loyalist and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) raids on colonial settlers in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania, ordered General John Sullivan and his Continentals into the area on a scorched earth expedition to destroy the perceived threat to Americans there. In late August, the Americans reached Fort Sullivan, in what is now Athens, Pennsylvania, and made their way up the Chemung River, reaching the Native settlement of Newtown on August 29th. There, a combined force of about 250 loyalist militia under John Butler, as well as 350 Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk and Delaware warriors under the command of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and Seneca leader Sayenqueraghta were camped out waiting for any trace of American forces. Brant did not originally want to fight at Newtown, but was overruled by his fellow commanders, and as a result the combined force tried several times to lure Sullivan’s men into an ambush. This failed, however, and Sullivan had his men scout for him to calculate his next move. He attacked that day at the base of a hill along the Chemung River, sustaining very few casualties and inflicting a number of casualties on the enemy. For the next 3 weeks, they destroyed around 40 abandoned villages to the north and west before returning to Fort Sullivan. On their return march, many of their horses were rendered so fatigued and injured that they were put out of their misery. Years later, as settlers poured into the area, the skulls of the horses were found a few miles from what became Elmira, New York. They had been aligned along a road by earlier settlers, and eventually this place was known as the Valley of the Horses’ Heads, and became my hometown of Horseheads, New York.

28/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 28th, 1793:

At the height of the French Revolutionary Wars, the British and Spanish had occupied and garrisoned the French port city of Toulon. The Directory, France’s governing body at the time, ordered a young artillery commander to the city to surround and force the allied withdrawal from Toulon, his name was Napoleon Bonaparte. Only taking command after his predecessor was wounded, Napoleon would use his artillery expertise to his advantage, firing both cannons and mortars at the enemy positions and eventually leaving them no choice but to abandon the city. Toulon was back in French hands, and the young Bonaparte earned his first recognition as a seasoned military commander. He would eventually, of course, go on to become Emperor of the French and nearly conquer most of Europe in the process, more on that later.

28/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 27th, 1776:

After the bloodiest fighting in the American Revolutionary War thus far, the British Army under Lord William Howe defeats George Washington’s Continental Army in the Battles of Long Island and Brooklyn. Just under two months after the American Declaration of Independence was signed and adopted, the Americans’ time had come to put military backing behind the newly declared United States in New York City, where the British launched the biggest amphibious invasion in history until D-Day (1944). Washington and his men were no match for the massive attack they were facing, and were eventually forced to retreat into Manhattan, and then onto New Jersey. They were on the run for months, until Christmas Day of that year, but more on that later. New York remained in the British camp for the rest of the war.

24/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 24th, 1944:

After more than two months since D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Western Europe, the French capital of Paris is finally liberated. The American, British, Canadian, and Free French forces had plowed their way through fierce German resistance, fighting from town to town, and sent the occupiers on the run. The battle for France was not yet over, however, and it would be another 8 months until the Allies made it to Berlin.

07/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 7th, 1959:
The “Paddlewheel” satellite, also known as Explorer 6, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida to become the first U.S. satellite to photograph the Earth. At a distance of 17,000 miles from the surface of Earth, the picture was funky with its transmission to Hawaii, which took 40 minutes, but for its time it was the most advanced technology. Part of the Space Race, this was a major breakthrough for NASA, and we would see the United States overtake the Soviet Union in space advancement over the coming decades.

07/08/2025

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 6th, 1945:

With an invasion of Mainland Japan projected to cause more casualties than any previous battle of World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman orders the unthinkable-a nuclear attack on Hiroshima, one of Japan’s most important industrial cities. This was the first of only two nuclear attacks in history, with the other coming just days later in Nagasaki. Japan soon surrendered, preventing a horrific death toll that would have certainly come from an amphibious invasion, but make no mistake, the loss of life and destruction from these two strikes was on a scale never before seen. Truman’s decision remains a controversial topic of discussion because of the horror unleashed by these weapons. The peace agreement was signed on September 2nd, 1945, 6 years and a day since the war in Europe had begun, but despite this peace the world entered into the atomic age, and has been in fear of nuclear catastrophe ever since.

05/08/2025

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here. It’s time for a relaunch of THIS DAY IN HISTORY!

August 5th, 1963:
The United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the test of nuclear weapons in space, underwater, and in Earth’s atmosphere. A direct result of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, this was touted to be a great first step toward controlling nuclear weapons at an international level after the world came the closest it had ever been to a nuclear war in its history. To this day, denuclearization remains a hot topic in international relations, and despite many more treaties (like SALT I & II) the world is still in fear of nuclear war with many nuclear nations either at war or having tension between one another, namely the United States and, of course, Russia. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same (Not my lyric, credit to Tom Keifer and Cinderella). That is all for today, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

04/08/2025

Finally: I Am Back.

Address


Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Happy Historian posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Share