A Brief History On August 1, 1977, former USAF and CIA pilot, Francis Gary Powers, died when his news helicopter crashed in Encino, California. Powers became famous worldwide when his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, causing a scandal and sensation during the Cold War. Other pilots have achieved high levels of fame, and today we ask, “Which pilot is the most famous?” Digging Deeper Some nominees include: Orville Wright, the first powered flight in 1903. Manfred von Richthofen, aka, The Red Baron, leading World War I (WWI) fighter Ace, serving in the Luftstreitkräfte…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.
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A Brief History On July 31, 2012, Ukrainian gymnast, Larisa Latynina, was passed as the most prolific Olympic Medal winner, when American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Larisa dominated Olympic gymnastics from 1956 to 1964, winning 9 Olympic Gold medals and a total of 18 Olympic medals. No gymnast, male or female, has surpassed her total of Gold medals, and her total medal record lasted for nearly 5 decades before broken by Phelps. A remarkable athlete, Phelps won a total of 28 Olympic medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics, in which the 15 year old…
A Brief History On July 30 and 31, 2012, Northern and Eastern India suffered massive electrical blackouts leaving 400 million people without electricity on July 30th and an even more incredible 620 million people without juice, but luckily only for about a day. Digging Deeper The previous blackout record, as measured by number of people denied use of electricity, had been 230 million people, again in India, in 2001. While the scope of the outage in these cases is immense, the length of time people are denied electric power most affects them. In the summer of 2022, part of Ohio…
A Brief History On July 29, 2021, the International Space Station suffered an engine malfunction in its Russian Nauka module, inadvertently firing its thrusters, causing the giant man-made satellite to spin out of control! Digging Deeper Luckily the problem was fixed, and operations continued normally after about an hour of extreme tension on board the craft as well as in the ground control center. Launched in 1998, the temporary loss of control has so far been the most serious problem threatening the Space Station. Created with the international cooperation of five countries plus the European Space Agency, bringing the total…
A Brief History On July 28, 1854, the USS Constellation was commissioned, a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship for the US Navy. The second US Navy ship of the name, the first was built in 1797 and was scrapped in 1853. Digging Deeper While seeking to strengthen the US Navy, economics mattered and the Navy sought to save money by using available stocks of Oak and to eschew the use of an expensive steam engine. Constellation would be economical to build and to operate. With a length of 191 feet and a beam of 43 feet, Constellation displaced 1400 tons,…