Al Nofi's CIC
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Issue #110, March 23, 2003 |
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This Issue...
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Infinite Wisdom
"The accidental meeting of two armies on the march gives rise to one of the most imposing scenes in war."
La Triviata
- By the end of the Mexican War in 1848, the Schuylkill Arsenal, in Philadelphia, was producing 12,000 pairs of shoes a month.
- Negotiations during the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 over the disposition of defeated Germany's High Sea Fleet became so heated that some wits termed the talks "The Naval Battle of Paris"
- All members of the Spanish Foreign Legion, including the lowest ranking privates, are always addressed as "Gentlemen."
- As part of a package of new imposts intended to help fight Revolutionary France, in 1795 Parliament created the "Hair Powder Tax," which was not repealed until 1869, by which time powdered wigs had been out of fashion for generations.
- The first combat use of an airplane appears to have occurred on November 1, 1911, when a Lt. Garetti of the Italian Air Service dropped a hand-held bomb whilst his 130 horse power Etrich monoplane was cruising along at 600 feet above a Libyan village.
- Beginning in the eleventh century the Church attempted to establish the "Truce of God," which granted immunity from harm during war to clergy, virgins, cloistered widows, the poor, pilgrims, crusaders, and even merchants on journeys, as well as churches, monasteries, and cemeteries, with their dependencies, while barring hostilities on Sundays and feast days, on pain of excommunication, an attempt at the mitigation of war that was only marginally successful.
- The Merchant Marine Academy, at King's Point, New York, is the only Federal academy authorized to carry a Battle Standard, by virtue of 142 cadets killed in action while serving at sea during World War II.
- In 1749 a clever French recruiting officer successfully passed off a band of Bretons as a group of highly desireable Polish volunteer cavalrymen, thereby earning a considerable recruiting bonus.
- The typical Roman legionary fortress provided up to 7,500 square feet of space for the commanding officer, and about 50 for each of his legionaries.
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