Anglo-Zanzibar War... The Shortest War in History

Some friends and I were talking about some famous wars in history. We talked about some of the longest and shortest wars in history. We could not agree on which wars were the shortest. So like a good scholar I am, I did some digging and I found the answer to this question. The answer is the Anglo-Zanzibar War. It lasted 38 minutes. Yes... you saw that correctly. The war was over in under an hour.

The Anglo-Zanzibar War happened on August 27 1896. This war was part of the Scramble for Africa that happened in the last half of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. The war started with the death of the pro-British Sultan and the appointment of an anti-British Sultan. The British did not like this and so started the war. The British bombardment the Sultan's Palace ended the war and the independence of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. I found a few pictures. The first is a map of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The 2nd picture is of the remains of the bombed out building of the Sultan's harem. The last picture is the placement of the armed forces involved the war.

Famous Manhattan Trees

I was talking to a friend awhile ago about famous animals, people, places and things. One topic kept popping up. That was famous trees in history. We spent the next 3 hours talking about trees. To make a long story short, we talked about the oldest trees in New York City. Most of these trees are the most famous in the United States. That list my friend and I talked about was very long... so I shortened that list to the island of Manhattan. There are only 3 trees that meet these parameters. The Hangman's Elm, The Stuyvesant Pear Tree and Inwood Hill Tulipwood. Let's talk about all 3 of these trees.

1. The Hangman's Elm is an English Elm that is over 300 year old. It is located in Washington Square Park and there are no records of any hanging to this hanging tree. There are records of an arsonist that was hung in 1820 in the cities' gallows.

2. Stuyvesant Pear Tree was a Pear tree located on the corner of 13th Street and 3rd Avenue. This tree was planted by Peter Stuyvesant while he served as the governor of Dutch New Amsterdam. The tree was lost some time around the 1860's.

3. Inwood Hill Tulipwood or the Minuit Tulipwood is Tulipwood located in the Inwood Hill Part. This tree was claimed to be the location where the Dutch purchased Manhattan from the local Native Americans in 1626. The Tree was destroyed in a storm in 1933.

Sadly, only the Hangman's Elm is still standing today. I know that there are dozens of other trees in New York City that meets these parameters of being the oldest trees. But, this blog entry would then be pages long. I found a few pictures of these 3 trees. The first picture is of the Hangman's Elm, the second is of the pear tree and the last pictures is of the Tulipwood.

Most Successful US Submarine in History

I wrote awhile ago about the most successful submarine in history. It was a German U-Boat called U-35 with 224 confirmed ships sunk. This got me thinking... What is the most successful US submarine in history? I did some digging and found the answer, the USS Tang. It has 33 confirmed ships that it sank. Which equals 116,454 tons. I was shocked by these numbers. She had a really short career. 1943 to 1944. She did 5 patrols in the Pacific during WWII. She was sunk in 1944 by one of her own torpedoes. Most torpedoes during WWII used by the US were duds and were worse that useless. I found a few pictures of the USS Tang. The first is of the USS Tang and the second is of the blueprints of the USS Tang after its sinking.