Celebrating Black History Month: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., first African American to promoted to brigadier general

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., born July 1, 1877 in Washington, DC, became the first African American to be promoted to brigadier general in the US Army.  He graduated from Howard University in 1898, and joined the 8th volunteer Infantry for the Spanish-American War, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant.

He joined the regular army as a private and then became a on-commissioned officer.  In 1901, he was appointed second lieutenant of Cavalry.  He served in the Philippine-American War and Wrold War I.  Despite racism and being passed over for promotions, he was promoted to Colonel in 1930.

Davis's accomplishments led him to be promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 4th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division.  He retired in 1948 and passed away in November 1970.

Celebrating Black History Month: James W. Mitchell, African-American chemist

James W. Mitchell, born November 16, 1943 in Durham, North Carolina, is a analytical chemist and materials engineer.  He has made significant contributions to trace element analysis.  He earned his BS in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University in 1965. He received his PhD in analytical chemistry from Iowa State University in 1970.

He attained the position of Head of the Analytical Chemistry Research Department in 1975 at AT&T Bell Laboratories and became one of the founders for the Association of Black Laboratory Employees. He was the first black director and vice-president of research at AT&T.

Mitchell co-wrote a book Contamination Control in Trace Analysis and published over 60 scientific papers and patented several processes.  

He received the Percy L. Julian Research Award and the Pharmacia Industrial Analytical Chemistry Award. In 1993 he was named Black Engineer of the Year by US Black Engineer.  In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement in Industry Award from the National Society of Black Engineers. 

Betty White nominated for Primetime Emmy 1951

 The 3rd Primetime Emmy Awards was held January 23, 1951. The nominees were mainly from the Los Angeles area, but beginning with the 4th ceremony, the awards considered national television networks.

Alan Young was a big winner that night winning for the Best Variety Show and Best Actor.  The phenomenal Betty White was nominated for Best Actress along with Helen Hayes, but lost to Gertrude Berg.

Happy birthday, Quicksilver!

Evan Peters, born January 20, 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri, got his big break when he was cast in American Horror Story in 2011.  His favorite role of mine is X-Man Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) in the X-Men series.  He won accolades as his performance as Jeffrey Dahmer in Monster, for which he won a Golden Globe award.

Firefly Aerospace and ISpace launch moon landers 2025

Aerosopace companies Firefly and ISpace (Japan) launched their lunar probes on a SpaceX rocket, January 15, 2025.  

Firefly's Blue Ghost landed on the moon in the Mare Crisium basin, March 2, 2025. Its mission will study the moon in preparation for human exploration in the future.

Japanese country ISpace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 (Resilience) crashed onto the lunar surface on June 5, 2025.

Book reveiw: "Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders" by Gyles Brandreth

 

I was intrigued by the title of Brandreth’s book Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders, since it promised to depict a giant of literature as a detective.  In fact, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the main character, with him as the narrator in first person, with Wilde as secondary.  However, as the story unfolds, it is Wilde who employs Sherlock Holmes’s techniques to solve a mystery and murders unfolding in the Vatican.  Although Doyle is the creator of Holmes, one of the world’s greatest detectives, he is relegated to playing Watson to Wilde’s Holmes. 

Doyle is depicted as clueless and Wilde is the observant one, who eventually solves the mystery.

During the heyday of Doyle, the author received volumes of fan mail, including many messages for Sherlock Holmes.  In Brandreth’s novel, Doyle receives several packages addressed to Holmes, which he opened weeks and months after receipt.  Doyle had been delinquent in responding to his mail, which moved slowly in the late nineteenth century.  Among the correspondence, Doyle found a mummified hand, a severed finger with a rose-gold ring, and a lock of hair.

Since the packages were sent from Rome, Oscar Wilde convinces Doyle that they must travel there to discover the source of the objects, the purpose in sending them, and solve the mystery of their origin.

To Wilde, money is no object and is more than willing to throw it around to conduct the investigation in luxury, with good food and drink. 

Brandreth employs Wilde’s flair and witticism throughout the novel.  But his treatment of Doyle is bland in comparison.  Doyle seems dull and without personality.  Of course, compared to Wilde, most everybody would be ordinary.  In this story, Doyle meets a charming young lady, “Irene Sadler” (an obvious reference to Irene Adler, who appears in A Scandal in Bohemia, and is the only person to outsmart Sherlock Holmes). It seems Doyle is smitten by Irene Sadler based on Wilde's observations, but there are no inner thoughts or acknowledgement of his feelings toward her. 

Weird.

If you’re an Oscar Wilde fan, you might enjoy this novel, but it really did not hold my interest and took me a while to finish it.

Happy birthday, Benny Andersson!

Benny Andersson, born december 16, 1946 in Stockholm, Sweden, is best known as the keyboardist for the super-group ABBA.  He co-composed the musicals Chess and Mamma Mia! He has been nominated for a Tony Award and a Grammy for Mamma Mia!