Jim Walsh
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Throughout the 1990s, Prince feuded with his record label, Warner Bros., over his rights as an independent recording artist-and made some of the most brilliant music of his career. During that time, Jim Walsh covered Prince for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and wrote about him passionately, thoughtfully, and exhaustively. Here, in real-time, is that coverage: a look back at Prince in the '90s. Walsh's newly unearthed interviews, essays, columns, and...
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During World War II, greatly increased engine power allowed these aircraft to slice through the sky at speeds of 200 miles per hour (mph), 300 mph, or even in excess of 400 mph when flying flat-out. Service ceilings jumped to 30,000 feet, altitudes unthinkable to World War I's aviators.
pilots had to adapt to countless technological improvements, and a select few truly mastered the art of dogfighting during history's deadliest war. In the United States,...
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Both Grant and Sherman shared the same theory of war: anything that might help the enemy's war effort should be considered a military target. After the Atlanta campaign, Grant explained to Sherman that the Confederates must be "demoralized and left without hope," and he instructed Sherman, "Take all provisions, forage and stock wanted for the use of your command. Such as cannot be consumed, destroy. Leave the valley so barren that crows flying over...
5) End of the Civil War: The History of the Battles and Events that Destroyed the Confederacy and Finis
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Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take 4 years and inflict over a million casualties, it...
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The KGB is one of the most famous abbreviations of the 20th century, and it has become synonymous with the shadowy and often violent actions of the Soviet Union's secret police and internal security agencies. In fact, it is often used to refer to the Soviet state security agencies throughout its history, from the inception of the inception of the Cheka (Extraordinary Commission) in 1917 to the official elimination of the KGB in 1992. Whether it's...
7) The Fur Trade in North America: The History and Legacy of the Competition and Conflicts Over Furs
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Though the importance of hats is easy to overlook, it was deadly serious in more ways than one, impacting the beavers and birds used to make fashionable hats, the environment of the region, and the people fighting over the resources. Beaver hats put the Dutch, British, and French in conflict, and later the Americans and Canadians. Plumed women's hats were considerably less important historically, but they had a huge ecological impact. The beaver is...
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On May 14, 1948, the British Mandate officially expired. That same day, the Jewish National Council issued the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. About 10 minutes later, President Truman officially recognized the State of Israel, and the Soviet Union also quickly recognized Israel. However, the Palestinians and the Arab League did not recognize the new state, and the very next day, armies from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded...
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"The failure to crush the Federal army in Pennsylvania in 1863, in the opinion of almost all of the officers of the Army of Northern Virginia, can be expressed in five words: the absence of the cavalry." – Confederate General Henry Heth
Without question, the most famous battle of the American Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which happened to be a transportation hub, serving as the center of a wheel with...
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One of the most integral members of that criminal underworld was Arnold Rothstein, the archetype of the old school mobster. He was intelligent, charming, well-spoken, grotesquely wealthy, and a sharp dresser, often pictured with a patterned bowtie and a flat-top fedora snugly fit over his receding hairline. And yet, he was nothing like the stereotypical mobster; Arnold was not a drinker or smoker, and he was not one to be tempted by illicit substances....
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By the close of 1864, Abraham Lincoln had been reelected, the Union army had taken Nashville from General Hood, and Sherman had concluded his total war, "slash-and-burn" march of destruction to Savannah, Georgia, offering it as a Christmas present to Lincoln. Nevertheless, with everything seemingly falling to pieces, the South still held out hope of some sort of miracle, and Davis even attempted to send a peace delegation to meet with Lincoln in the...
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At first, airplane improvements occurred in an ad hoc, almost accidental manner during World War I. However, when pilots' mounting of armaments on airplanes proved a successful means of defeating other aircraft and even attacking men on the ground, a much more active and systematic development of warplanes began across the continent. Each advance prompted a countermeasure, as the two sides strove for primacy in a deadly, unforgiving environment which...
13) Stonewall Brigade and Hood's Brigade: The History of the Most Famous Units in Robert E. Lee's Army
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The Stonewall Brigade went on to fight in every major battle in the Eastern theater of the American Civil War, to the extent that of the 6,000 men who fought with the brigade over the course of four years, less than 200 remained by the time General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. They were organized, trained, and mentored by one of the most revered military leaders in American history, and they made a decisive...
14) Ottoman Empire's Worst Defeats: The History and Legacy of the Decisive Battles that Checked the Otto
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In the wake of taking Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire would spend the next few centuries expanding its size, power, and influence, bumping up against Eastern Europe and becoming one of the world's most important geopolitical players. It was a rise that would not truly start to wane until the 19th century. The long agony of the "sick man of Europe," an expression used by the Tsar of Russia to depict the falling Ottoman Empire, could almost blind...
15) Philippines Campaigns of World War II: The History of the Japanese Invasion in 1941-1942 and the Ja
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I came through and I shall return." - General Douglas MacArthur
Those who had decoded and seen the Japanese communications in early December 1941 would not be surprised when they heard about an attack on December 7, 1941. They would, however, be astonished when they heard where that attack took place. Posted on the other side of the world, it was early on the morning of December 8 in the Philippines when American general Douglas MacArthur received...
16) Battle of Woody Point: The History of the Confrontation that Led to the Deaths of the First Ameri
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The fur trade had its tensions, but for many years, traders and natives worked out their own systems, times, and traditions, allowing many different groups to interact and even compete without issues that led to war. Though native groups sometimes found themselves in conflicts based on long-standing rivalries or relations with the Europeans, most of the fur traders, the trappers, the Indians, and Hudson's Bay Company officials lived peaceably. The...
17) Middle East in World War I: The History and Legacy of the Biggest Campaigns in the Great War's Forgo
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*Includes pictures
*Includes accounts of the campaigns
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
*Includes a table of contents
World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months...
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Throughout the 19th century, American settlers pushing across the Western frontier came into contact with diverse American tribes, producing a series of conflicts ranging from the Great Plains to the Southwest, from the Trail of Tears to the Pacific Northwest. Indian leaders like Geronimo became feared and dreaded men in America, and Sitting Bull's victory over George Custer's 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn was one of the nation's most traumatic military...
19) Ottoman Empire's Greatest Sultans: The Lives and Legacies of Osman I, Mehmed II, and Suleiman the Ma
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In terms of geopolitics, perhaps the most seminal event of the Middle Ages was the successful Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1453. The city had been an imperial capital as far back as the 4th century, when Constantine the Great shifted the power center of the Roman Empire there, effectively establishing two almost equally powerful halves of antiquity's greatest empire. Constantinople would continue to serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire...
20) America's Greatest Engineering Projects: The Construction History of the Transcontinental Railroad
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The Transcontinental Railroad, laid across the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one hand, it was a triumph of engineering skills over thousands of miles of rough terrain, but on the other hand, it drained the natural resources in those places nearly dry. It "civilized" the American West by making it easier for women and children to travel there, but it dispossessed Native American civilizations that...