Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On June 23, 2023, Americans celebrate National Detroit Style Pizza Day, a day to honor perhaps America’s favorite food in a unique style. Digging Deeper While most are familiar with “New York Style” and “Chicago Style” pizza, the variety invented by Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit, Michigan back in 1946 is a major player in gustatory wars that define pizza. Detroit Style is different, starting with its square shape, baked with a thick, airy crust in a square pan, spread with plenty of Wisconsin Brick Cheese all the way to the ends, covered with “racing stripes” of pizza…

A Brief History On June 22, 1918, a passenger train carrying US military troops plowed into the rear end of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train that had stopped on the tracks for repairs.  Sadly, 86 of the over 250 circus people died and 127 were injured, making the Hammond Circus Train Wreck one of the worst in US railroad history. Digging Deeper The name of the wreck derives from the location, near Hammond, Indiana.  The driver of the troop train had fallen asleep and missed at least two warnings about the stopped train ahead.  Luckily, the relatively fragile wooden circus cars…

A Brief History On June 21, 1973, the US Supreme Court handed down a decision in Miller v. California, establishing a way to determine if something is “free speech” guaranteed by the 1st Amendment or if it is obscene. Digging Deeper Referred to as the “Miller Test,” SCOTUS determined that three factors must be present for some sort of expression to be considered obscene and not covered under “free speech.”  These three factors are: “Whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Whether the work depicts…

A Brief History On June 20, 1787, Connecticut attorney and a Founding Father of the United States, Oliver Ellsworth, made a motion at the Federal Convention to call the government of our new country, the United States of America. Digging Deeper While not an everyday name taught to school children as a major “Founding Father,” Ellsworth is notable for serving as a Senator from Connecticut, being a framer of the Constitution, serving as the third chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and even winning 11 electoral votes in the presidential election of 1796. A patriot that…

A Brief History On June 19, 1960, the first auto race under the NASCAR banner was run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.  NASCAR is the premier stock-car racing circuit in the US and the world, as its official name, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, implies. Digging Deeper While Europe was the venue of many prestigious stock-car races early in the 20th Century, the US took the lead on the sport with the emergence of Daytona Beach as a mecca for fast drivers.  While originally using actual production model cars, hence the name of the sport, in…