A Brief History On February 1, 1950, the first successful night landing of jet aircraft onto an aircraft carrier occurred when the US Navy landed an octet of Grumman F9F Panthers onto the deck of the USS Valley Forge. Digging Deeper Jet aircraft first flew in 1939, when the Heinkel He-178 took to the air. By the end of World War II, Britain and the US had joined Germany in producing operational jet fighters, but aircraft carrier technology of the day made the use of jets on carriers problematic. The jets generally had higher landing speeds and higher stall speeds…
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 January 31, 1988, Doug Williams quarterbacked the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII, the first time an African American quarterback had played in Super Bowl history. Digging Deeper Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing a solid 220 pounds, Williams played college football at Grambling State, starting all four years and posting an outstanding 36-7 record. In his senior year, Williams was a premier NCAA quarterback, leading the nation in yards passing and touchdown passes thrown, although he only finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting. Williams became the 17th overall pick in the…
A Brief History On January 27, 2010, Apple, Incorporated introduced their industry leading line of tablet computers they called the iPad. So successful was their invention, that many variations followed, such as the iPad Mini, the iPad Air, and the iPad Pro. Apple has sold 670 million plus of these handheld computers, so many that the name, “iPad,” has become the more or less accepted generic name for tablet type computers. Digging Deeper Many products have so dominated their respective markets that their name has become the generic term for those classes of products. Names such as Q-tip, Kleenex, Jell-O,…
A Brief History On January 26, 1959, the California State Lands Commission posted Chain Island, a 41 acre island in Suisun Bay where the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River meet, for sale with a minimum acceptable bid of $5,226. Digging Deeper An island made much larger than naturally occurring by the dumping of tailings from hydraulic mining up the rivers over the years, California had long intended to “remove” the island by hauling away the dirt and rocks, for use as a source of possible mineral recovery. Alas, removal never happened, and the island sat there in the way…
A Brief History On January 25, 2019, the people of Brumadinho, Brazil, found out how dam failure can be a catastrophe when a mining dam broke and 270 people were killed. The same mining company previously had a dam fail in 2015, at Mariana, Brazil, killing 19 people, far fewer than some other major dam failures. Digging Deeper In the US, the worst dam failure as far as human fatalities, was the South Fork Dam failure in Pennsylvania in 1889, an earthen dam overwhelmed by heavy rains that killed 2,208 people. This dam had failed before! Another US earthen dam…