Ralph Spencer was born in 1859 in Connecticut and became a businessman with interests in retail and oil. He is known as the chief developer of a small town in the State of Georgia called Tallapoosa. Most of Spencer’s businesses failed and his creditors often questioned his honesty. Some even considered him a swindler but he was never successfully prosecuted. […]
In January 1943 the poorly equipped 2nd Hungarian Army was destroyed by the Soviet Red Army near the Don River. In the senseless battle tens of thousands of Hungarians froze to death. Some say that 93,500 lives were lost in less than two weeks, while others put the number at 148,000. The Horthy government covered up the disaster and falsified […]
Two woman got married in Seattle last December just before New Year’s Eve. Basketball players Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony. Both woman are well known in Hungary. They are star players, both Hungarian citizens who have represented Hungary in several tournaments. Thousands congratulated them on their marriage; with well wishes from fans and sport […]
Father Mihály Kardos has spent the last four years of his life in a medical facility for the homeless in Szeged run by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta. With both of Fr. Kardos’ legs amputated, the elderly priest needs assisted living and care. Four years ago, he was given the option of living in a much […]
For the past several months, despite continuing to edit this journal, I try to keep to the principle of moderation when it comes to Hungarian politics and political news emanating from Budapest. I do that by actively tuning out for at least part of each weekend. For one, I am reading many more books than before (primarily literary fiction) and […]
Before I got involved with current events in Hungary, I wrote fiction and occasionally poetry. I began my post-secondary education as an undergraduate student in English literature, immersed mostly in Canadian and British literary fiction. Some fifteen years later and after writing more than one thousand articles on current affairs in my two online publications, I felt that it was […]
Balázs Éry is a Hungarian musician, songwriter and a contributor to our sister publication, the Kanadai Magyar Hírlap. He wrote a Hungarian-language piece for KMH on his recent experiences in Las Vegas and submitted an English version for publication in the Hungarian Free Press. * During those few days which I spent in Robert Goulet‘s villa in Nevada – enjoying […]
On October 6 Hungary commemorates the anniversary of the execution of the Hungarian rebel generals after the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. In 1849 on this very day Julius Jacob von Haynau, Austrian general ordered the execution of 13 military leaders of the failed Hungarian Revolution and War for Independence. The executions took place in the city of […]
In the increasingly surreal world that is Hungary in 2018, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has banned two presentations that would have formed part of an annual series of events where scholars present their research to broader, often non-academic audiences. The series, entitled “Give a Night to the Sciences” (in Hungarian: “Adjon egy estét a tudománynak!”) is scheduled for November […]
I grew up in the Hungarian city of Debrecen, about 150 miles east of the capital Budapest, near the Romanian border. Every day going to school I walked past the Statue of the Galley Slaves erected in the garden behind the Great Reformed Church. To be frank, I didn’t know the story of the column which was commissioned over a […]
