In early 1930s Germany faced severe economic woes because of the fallout of World War I. The Nazi party was gaining strength because of growing dissatisfaction with the ruling Weimer Republic. German President Paul von Hindenburg sought to make an alliance with the Nazis against left-wing opponents like the Communist party. Hindenburg asked Adolf Hitler to serve as Chancellor to seal the alliance.

As Chancellor, Hitlers first call of action was to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag (lower house of republic legislature) and call for a new parliamentary election. Hitlers goals for his actions was to gain a Nazi majority in the Reichstag and remove his communist opposition. Hitler hoped to abolish democracy legally, by passing the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act is a law that gave the Chancellor the power to pass laws by decree and without the involvement of the Reichstag. To pass the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority vote in the Reichstag. The Nazis currently had 32% of the seats. During the election campaign, the Nazis alleged that the Communist were trying to take over Germany, and the only way to stop them was by voting for the Nazi’s. …

As 2020 comes to a close, we will list the top 8 biggest mistakes of 2020. Why 8? Given 2020 is well 2020, I felt its only right to only do a weird number like 8 to cap off this odd year.

8: Washington Football Team cutting Dwayne Haskins

The Washington Football team drafted Haskins, less than two years ago. The team spent a top 15 pick on someone they hoped would be their franchise leader at the team’s most important position for a minimum of 10 years. In less than 2 years, the two sides departed ways. To cut a first-round pick is a disaster, but to cut a first-round pick who plays quarterback after less than two years is a Titanic level disaster. …

Jesus Christ wasn’t born on December 25th. Sorry if I bursted anyone’s bubble with that news. Shepard’s would not have been out in their fields in the middle of winter. Why do we celebrate this day as the birth of Christ? It’s complicated, but I will walk you through the evolution of Christmas.

The middle of winter has been a time of celebration around the world before Jesus Christ was born. People celebrated the winter solstice, it signified the worst of winter was over and they could look forward to extended hours of sunlight.

During the era of the Roman empire, the Romans celebrated a holiday known as Saturnalia. The holiday was in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Saturnalia begins in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continues for a month. The holiday was pure mayhem, food and drinks flowed freely and the normal Roman social order was flipped. Slaves became masters, commoners were in charge of the city, and businesses and schools were closed during the holiday period. …

The first Tower Records was opened in 1960 in Sacramento, California, by Russell Solomon. The store was named after his father’s drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theatre. Tower expanded to San Francisco in 1967, then to Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd in 1971. At the Sunset location, you might find Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Ella Fitzgerald or Brian Wilson buying records. Tower expanded internationally when it opened its first Japan store in 1980.

Tower continued to grow throughout the 80s and 90s and had 89 American Stores. In the 90s, Tower focused on growing internationally and it had stores in Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Ireland, Isreal, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina. During this era if you wanted a record, cassette or compact disc (CD) you had to go to a record shop, and Tower was one of the best known ones along with Warehouse and Sam Goody. All the international growth came at a price. In 1998 Tower took on a $110 million loan to finance its expansion. Tower had experienced almost 40 years of business growth and figured things would just keep growing. With the rise of CD sales, which sold for twice as much as vinyl records, the good times would continue to roll, or so Tower thought. …

Ardan Markizova was the People’s Commissar for Agriculture of the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Province in the U.S.S.R in the 1930s. He took his daughter Engelsina Sergeyevna Markizova (Gelya) to a meeting at the Kremlin with Joseph Stalin in 1936. What occurred at the meeting would change Gelya and her family’s life for better and for worse.

During the meeting, Gelya got bored with the endless speeches about agricultural holdings (as most of us would), and walked up to Stalin. The gesture stunned Stalin, but he picked her up and put her on the table he was sitting at and took the bouquet of flowers she offered and a hug. Journalists were at the meeting and they immediately started taking pictures of this event. …

I want to take you back to the United States in the 1850s. It was a time frame where the government didn’t regulate or provide standards for food quality. Vaccines and medical progress was nowhere near the levels we have today. Diseases, like Cholera and Typhoid, were a part of everyday life back then. When Infant mortality started raising in New York City during this time, no one thought it was tied to the milk supply.

New York City distilleries discovered a way to make extra cash besides selling alcohol in the 1850s. Distilleries had a lot of excess grains after the alcohol making process. One enterprising distiller discovered that after you extracted the alcohol from the grain, the left over mash contained nutrients. That same distiller attached cow stables near or on the distillery and fed the cows with the leftover grain swill. The economic advantage of this is they could sell the milk from the cows at a much lower price point than regular dairy farmers. …

The purpose behind the 18th amendment (Prohibition) was pure. Its advocates thought the law would cure the country of alcoholism, family violence, and political corruption. Sounded good in theory, but the actual practice of Prohibition opened up a lot of unintended consequences that weren’t foreseen. In the 13 years Prohibition was alive, a lot of secondary effects popped up that made Prohibition a mistake. I will discuss the top 10 of many unintended consequences of Prohibition.

When prohibition took effect in January 1920, it put many bars out of business. Americans’ thirst for alcohol never ceased. Whenever there is a demand in the market, supply will meet it and these factors led to the rise of illegal speakeasies. The number of illegal speakeasies exploded during the Prohibition era. …

In the early years of America, the position of Secretary of State was seen as the next President in waiting. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were all previously Secretary of State’s before they became President. In the 1824 Presidential Election, John Quincy Adams was the sitting Secretary of State and the presumptive next President. Adams was the son of John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States. Besides, having Presidential blood lines, Adams also had an extensive history of serving as an Ambassador, a U.S. Senator and serving in Congress before becoming Secretary of State. If you could draft a dream resume for a U.S. …