Boudica was a queen of a tribe called the Iceni on the island of Great Britain. Her husband ruled as an ally of Rome but when he died the Roman Empire took his kingdom instead of allowing it to be passed on to his daughters. 

Boudica chose to revolt. Her forces sacked three Roman settlements, one of them modern-day London, killing over 70,000 people. The Roman governor was able to stop the revolt but not before Emperor Nero was forced to consider withdrawing all Roman forces from the island. 

Roman Senator/Historian Tacitus reports that Boudica poisoned herself to avoid capture.

Boudica became a folk-hero, revered for her rebellion. In 1902 a statue of Boudica was erected in London, next to Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. Ironic, considering London is one of the cities sacked during her revolt.

Nero ruled the Roman Empire from 54-68, his time in power best known for it’s tyrrany and extravagance. 

When a Roman Senator was murdered by one of his slaves the rest of the Roman Senate demanded the execution of his remaining slaves, according to Roman law. The fact that there were four hundred slaves didn’t change their sentence. 

The populace, upon hearing of the sentence, demanded the release of the slaves. In order to stop a potential mob, Nero deployed the Roman army to enforce the sentence and all four hundred slaves were killed.

What did the ancient Romans do with four hundred dead bodies? The logistical problems alone seem to be a deterrent in such a mass execution but since the officials were the ones calling for the murder of the slaves the people of the city were fighting a losing battle.

The entire situation brings to mind when Eisenhower sent in the US Army to enforce the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. This isn’t to equate the murder of hundreds of slaves to the integration of a high school; rather it brings to light the responsibility of those in charge to uphold sentences passed down by another branch of government. 

It’s hard to imagine Nero had any qualms whatsoever with the mass execution, given his reputation.

Vespasian was Emperor of Rome from 69-79 AD.  In 69, after being declared Emperor by the Roman Legions in Egypt, Vespasian saw two men, one blind and the other lame. According to reports, the blind man was able to see after Vespasian spat on his eyes and the lame man was able to walk after Vespasian touched him with his heel. The deity who supposedly gave Vespasian these powers was Serapis, a god popular in Alexandria. These miracles only served to cement his position as Emperor among the Egyptians. 

While Vespasian was in Egypt his troops defeated the occupant of the throne, Vitellius, and the Roman Senate declared him Emperor.

Vespasian was the fourth Emperor in the Year of the Four Emperors (civil war was responsible for the rapid changes) and his reign last until his death. His reign was the first in the Flavian Dynasty, which includes his two sons Titus and Domitian, and was the first time a Roman Emperor was directly succeeded by his son. 

Construction of the Colosseum began during Vespasian’s reign.

In August 1943, future President John F. Kennedy was commanding officer on PT-109, a patrol torpedo boat, and in charge of 12 men. They were stationed in Rendova Island, an island in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. The night of August 1 his boat, one of fifteen, was sent out to torpedo Japanese destroyers but along the way got separated. Not a single destroyer was hit by any of the PT boats that night. 

Alone and in the darkness, idling to avoid detection, PT-109 was struck by a Japanese destroyer and cut in two, killing two of the thirteen men onboard.

Kennedy rescued three of his men by bringing them to the floating bow of their broken boat. The eleven surviving men drifted at sea for twelve hours awaiting rescue.

After no signs of rescue the men swam through shark and crocodile infested waters for four hours to tiny Plum Pudding Island. There were islands closer than this but all were occupied by Japanese forces.

Plum Pudding Island had no food or water so Kennedy made a 2 hour swim to try and flag down an American vessel but had no success.

Two days later the men, including those injured in the crash, swam to nearby Olasana Island. Here there were coconuts but still no water. On Naru Island, a one-hour swim away, Kennedy found a canoe with candy, crackers, and a fifty gallon drum of water. He paddled the canoe back to his men. 

While the men were hopping from island to island, coastwatchers who had witnessed the explosion of the PT-109 were looking for possible survivors. Two coastwatchers found the shipwrecked unit and took a message from Kennedy, scratched into a coconut, to their base on Rendova island. A rescue was organized and the men were finally rescued 7 days after they left to sea.

Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions and the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in the collision. The coconut which had his message scratched on it was preserved in a glass paperweight and Kennedy kept it on his Oval Office desk during his presidency.

The Pulitzer Prize is generally regarded as the most prestigious prize in journalism. There are currently 21 categories which are awarded the Pulitzer, ranging from photography to music. 

There were 14 Pulitzers awarded in 1957, less categories than the current number because of the introducton of new categories for online content. That year, the Pulitzer for biography was awarded to John F. Kennedy, at the time a Massachusetts Senator. His work, Profiles in Courage, is a series of short biographies about eight Senators who did what they though was right despite suffering criticism and losses of popularity as a result.  

The list of men profiled in the biography include John Quincy Adams, Sam Houston, and Robert Taft (son of former President William Taft).

There were rumors about the actual authorship of the biographies. ABC reported that a ghostwriter, Kennedy’s speechwriter Ted Sorensen, actually wrote the entirety of the book but when Kennedy’s lawyers showed up at ABC the network issued a retraction and an apology. 

 The Kennedy Library is home to Kennedy’s handwritten notes, showing his contribution to the work. It is now accepted that Kennedy and Sorensen co-wrote Profiles in Courage.

Operation Tracer was a World War II Allied military operation designed as a backup plan in case Gibraltar fell into Axis hands. 

A room was built as an observation post from which enemy movement could be reported to the United Kingdom. The room included views of both the Bay of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea. 

The volunteers included an executive officer, two physicians, and three wireless operators. The original plan was for a one year stay but provisions for up to seven were provided for the men. 

In August 1943, once it was evident there would be no need for the Operation, the secret room was blocked off and the provisions were removed.

A documentary about the excavation of the secret room, released in 2012, is called Operation Tracer – Stay Behind Cave

To say President Eisenhower was obsessed with golf would be an understatement. He played close to 800 rounds while in office, an average of 100 rounds per year since he served two terms. His prolific golfing helped turn the sport from an elitist pasttime to one for average Americans.

He left the presidency in 1961 and continued to play in his retirement. In February 1968, in Palm Springs, California, Eisenhower hit his first hole in one on a 104 yard par 3. 

In April 1968, just a few months after his once in a lifetime shot, he suffered heart attack and was admitted to Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, DC. After suffering three more heart attacks while recovering he died in March 1969 having never left the hospital again. 

Eisenhower picked up smoking during his time at West Point and by the end of World War II was up to smoking 4 packs a day.

In 1949 he decided to quit and began by trying to remove cigarettes and ashtrays from the spaces he occupied. When this didn’t work he went the opposite direction. He surrounded himself with temptation.

His pockets were stuffed with cigarettes and he made it a practice to offer one to every person who came into his office but never touched one himself. Each time he was able to resist he felt a feeling of accomplishment and superiority (since he was able to resist while the person smoking was dependent on the tobacco) which allowed him to give up the addiction for good.