A Brief History On September 26, 46 BC, Roman Dictator Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to Venus Genetrix, a temple he promised the goddess while fighting the Battle of Pharsalus. Today, we ask you, “Who would you dedicate a temple to?” We graciously supply a few suggestions, although you may freely pick your own! Digging Deeper Colonel Harland Sanders, the Godfather of Fried Chicken Eminem, The Rap God Michael Phelps, the modern Olympian “water god” Philo Farnsworth, inventor of of the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system Teressa Bellissimo, creator of Buffalo Wings The Sun, because George Carlin…
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 September 25, 1992, NASA launched a probe known as the Mars Observer, alternately known as Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, an unmanned spacecraft sent to study the surface, atmosphere, climate, and magnetic field on Mars. Unfortunately, in August of 1993 communication with Mars Observer was lost permanently, a costly failure. Today, we list several egregious space exploration failures and invite you to tell us which one you think was the worst. Digging Deeper Soyuz 1, reentry parachute failure, 1967, 1 cosmonaut died Apollo 1 Fire on Ground, 1967, 3 astronauts died Apollo 13, multiple failures caused Moon landing…
A Brief History On September 25, 1961, the State of Wisconsin first required any new automobile made starting in 1962 to be equipped with front seat safety belts. While Nash Motors first offered this commonsense device in 1949, the rest of the United States was not required to have seat belt equipped cars until 1962, with shoulder belts required as of 1968. Digging Deeper Despite all cars having seat belts, drivers and passengers rarely wore them, even when annoying buzzers were included to “remind” people to wear the hated belts. New York paved the way with a law requiring seat…
A Brief History On September 24, 1884, Hugo Schmeisser was born in Jena, in what was then the German Empire. The son of a well known weapons designer, Hugo would go on to everlasting fame, or infamy if you prefer, as the man that invented the assault rifle. Digging Deeper Did you think the assault rifle inventor was Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian that invented the AK-47? Or perhaps you thought that Eugene Stoner, inventor of the M-16/AR-15 family of assault rifles invented the genre? Schmeisser beat both of those famous weapons designers by coming up with the StG-44 during World…
A Brief History On September 23, 1986, Houston Astros’ pitcher Jim Deshaies set a record, striking out the first eight batters he faced. We ask you, what MLB record is the hardest to top? Digging Deeper We list some possible answers below but go ahead and tell us your own ideas if you prefer. Denton “Cy” Young, Most Wins by a pitcher, 511, 1890-1911 (Young is also the only pitcher to have pitched over 700 Complete Games) Ty Cobb, career Batting Average, .366, 1905-1928 Joe DiMaggio, 56 game hit streak, 1941 Nolan Ryan, 7 career No Hitters, 1973-1991 (Nolan Ryan…