History and Headlines - A Bizarre Look at History...One Day at a Time!

September 25, 2014: American Airports Have Lost Their Mojo!

By Major Dan on September 25, 2018 September 25, Travel

A Brief History On September 25, 2014, O’Hare Airport in Chicago regained its status as the World’s Busiest Airport, taking the title back from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Or not, depending on which source you cite. The Atlanta airport had been the busiest in the world for all of the 21st Century up until either 2014 or up to the present. The United States once had many of the busiest airports in the world, and some of the most modern and highest tech airplane launching sites but have slipped in recent years as other countries have built modern, higher technology airfields…

September 24, 787: Big Arguments and Debates over Things Critical and Less Than Critical

By Major Dan on September 24, 2018 Lists, September 24

A Brief History On September 24, 787, church leaders of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church met at the Church of Hagia Sophia in Iznik, province of Nicaea ( province of Bursa in modern Turkey) in a conference known as the Second Council of Nicaea. The object of the Council was to resolve issues of difference between the beliefs and teaching of both branches of Christianity, notably, to venerate or not to venerate icons. (Some terminology: iconolater = one who venerates icons/holy images; iconoclast = one who prohibits against the veneration of icons; iconoclasm = the prohibition against…

September 21, 2018: Assassination Nation Premiers, Human Nature Never Looked So Bad! (Movie Review)

By Major Dan on September 23, 2018 Arts & Entertainment, September 21

A Brief History On September 21, 2018, the new Comedy/Horror film, Assassination Nation, premiered across the United States. They remembered to keep in the “horror,” but left out most of the “comedy,” and that is all right with us! A thoroughly modern comment on human nature in the age of social media and computers, a group of suburban high school girls is the center of the drama created when an unknown hacker starts releasing everyone’s secret texts, emails, and downloads. A “Purge” like scenario develops where bloodthirsty, offended, hypocritical citizens are out to avenge those people found to be engaged…

September 22, 1995: Birds Are Hazardous to Your Health!

By Major Dan on September 22, 2018 Animals/Pets, Nature, September 22, Travel

A Brief History On September 22, 1995, a United States Air Force Boeing E-3B Sentry (AWACS, early warning spy in the sky type aircraft) flew into a flock of birds immediately after taking off from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, putting 2 of the 4 jet engines out of commission and causing a crash of the big plane, killing all 24 crewmen aboard. Developed from the Boeing 707 jetliner, the E-3 is a large airplane, but not so large it could not be downed by birds. Birds pose a danger to airplanes of all sizes and types and can…

September 21, 1921: Another Bizarre Catastrophe (Oppau Explosion)

By Major Dan on September 21, 2018 Nature, Science & Technology, September 21

A Brief History On September 21, 1921, as many as 600 Germans learned of a new way to die when a silo in Oppau, Germany (part of modern-day Ludwigshafen, Germany), exploded with great force, injuring another 2000 unfortunate workers. As you probably know, silos are tower like cylindrical structures usually used to store foodstuffs such as grain and corn. In this case, the silo in question was at a BASF plant and was used to store ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. Digging Deeper You may also be aware that ammonium nitrate can be used as a mixture with fuel oil…