Carthage Must Be Destroyed

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Time for my first Totally Awesome Person Post. It is what is says it will be. Most of these people will be from the History vs. History post I did several months back. Other people will make it on the list as well, I got good suggestions for folks I had not thought of. So without further ado... Today's Totally Awesome Person is Sgt. Yakov Pavlov. Yes, he's a Russian. Better than that he's a Soviet who was honored with being named a " Hero of the Soviet Union " by Joseph Stalin. He also served in the Communist party. You are probably thinking: "Wow this Danny McNight guy is really open-minded to have written his first Totally Awesome Person post about a member of the Soviet Union. That takes a lot of courage." And to that I would say: "Heck yeah." But honestly, it doesn't matter where you're from if you accomplished what Pavlov did in the the fall of 1942. People should drink to his memory not for his ideology, but his sheer tenacity an...

When most of us look at a crescent on a flag, we generally think of one thing: is it waxing or waning? .... ok, not that. We generally think of something other than that: Islam. A great many nations use the crescent in their national flag. Algeria, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey are just a handful. This is flag for the Republic of Turkey. Although a republic now, Turkey is still very heavily Islamic, with over 97% of its population considering itself Islamic. The same could be said of other countries using the crescent–Algeria (99% Muslim), Azerbaijan (99%), Tunisia (99%), Pakistan (97%), and so on. So the Christians have the cross and the Muslims have the crescent, right? Not exactly. The history of the crescent predates Islam and even Christianity. The city of Byzantium, which later became Constantinople and then Istanbul, adopted the crescent flag before the birth of Christ. No one knows for sure why the flag was used. Some speculate that it was adopted after the Romans defea...

This is my second of three/four installments on the Battle of Vienna. I haven't decided how many yet. There were some questions as to what a Grand Vizier actually is. I am sorry that Disney's Aladdin wasn't that helpful. The Grand Vizier was the top minister of the Sultan and could only be axed by the Sultan himself. He had absolute power of attorney and could call together all the other ministers in the land to deal with matters of state. So... the sultan is numero-uno, and the Grand Vizier is his right-hand man. Sieging the City The Ottoman Turks were not fighting alone. The Khanate of Crimea, Moldovia, Transylvania and Wallachia aided the Ottomans, bringing the total force to 150,000 troops and 300 canons. Leopold and 80,000 civilians high-tailed it out of city as the Ottomans advanced closer to Vienna. The Emperor entrusted 11,000 soldiers, about 5,000 volunteers and 300+ cannons to Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg. The task of defending the city would be a difficult one....

I like this story so much I'm creating an animation of several key moments in the battle. This is a blocked out screenshot of the Turks laying siege on Vienna from a hill top. Still pretty rough, but you get the idea. Maybe I'll post a clip as things come along.

Ottomans, Poles, Austrians, Germans, Catholics, Muslims, sieges, cavalry charges, heroics, awesome quotes, coffeehouses, secret messengers, strangulation and subterranean battles ALL IN ONE STORY. I'm just saying. After eight months of researching I finally have enough material to write a new post. Crazy, you think? or perhaps lazy... No. Dedication. Dedication towards my passion of history makes me thorough. I have travelled far and wide, endured hardships that are unimaginable, and danced with death itself all to bring to you an unspoiled and rich story that will send you on an emotional roller coaster and heal your troubled soul. I ask you to stand with me this day and count yourself among the blest to be educated once again at the feet of my blog. Just stare at the shiny colored box for a few minutes and come away a better person. By the way, it's so good it'll be a trilogy. In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople and finally brought an end to the Roman Empir...