Creative History

  The media called it the “Fight for America” and like almost every single major prize fight ever since with high stakes involved, and even higher public interest, the bout was dubbed “The Fight of the Century”--the Fight of the 19th Century that is!   Ten thousand dollars and some would say the future of what it even meant to be called an “American” were on the line that day when on February 7, 1849 at a farm in Maryland, located forty miles from Baltimore on a desolate snow covered island, what the press called “The Fight for America” and what the public referred to as “The Fight of the Century” took place in front of less than 200 spectators, mostly gamblers and former fighters themselves, because at that time boxing despite its underground popularity, and its popularity as a legitimate sport in the United Kingdom, was illegal almost everywhere in the United States of America. It was definitely not an auspicious place or time of year to hold an outdoor boxing match...

  On the morning of November 7, 1918 the French Deuxieme Bureau (Intelligence Bureau) receives an unverified report that an armistice ending the World War has been signed by Germany and the allied powers of the United States, Great Britain and France. When news of the signing of an armistice to end hostilities reaches American Army Intelligence in Paris, the Americans express doubt about the veracity of the French report and insist that, as far as they know, military operations are still very much active on the Western Front and that it is much too early on in the peace negotiations for any armistice agreement to have been reached. French intelligence insists though, that their report states that an armistice has, in fact, been signed and that a ceasefire is set to go into effect at 2 pm that very day. Head of the American Army Intelligence Service Lieutenant Colonel Cabot Wood forwards the report, “with reservations” to General John J. Pershing commander of the American Ex...