A Brief History On August 3, 2023, as with every First Thursday in August, Americans celebrate National IPA Day. If you are not a connoisseur of fine brewed malt beverages, namely beer and ale, you might not be familiar with IPA. Digging Deeper IPA is a product of the 1700s when long voyages to and from India were made by unrefrigerated British sailing ships. In order to have their precious brewski stay fresh, brewers, especially George Hodgson, concocted a brew that was bitter, hoppy, and crisp, that could survive the long voyages in wooden casks. The brew became known as…
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.
Read More
A Brief History On August 2, 1870, the Tower Subway opened for passenger traffic in London, England, the first ever underground tube type railway commonly called a “subway” in the US and “the tube” in the UK. Digging Deeper Not to be confused with a fast food store, a subway is a rail train for carrying passengers in underground tunnels. Using coal or wood powered steam engines, or even gasoline or diesel engines to power the train would be problematic underground. The Tower Subway was propelled by a cable system with no onboard propulsive power. Most subways today are electric…
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…
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…