Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On March 28, 1933, the first known incident of an airliner airplane being taken down by the actions of a passenger occurred when the City of Liverpool (airplanes, trains and the like used to have names like ships are named), a biplane operated by Imperial Airways was taken down because of a fire set by a passenger.  Ever since then, terrorists, saboteurs, and  assorted criminals have taken down airliners, usually with bombs, but also by commandeering the plane and flying it into the ground or other object, most notably the aerial hijackings of September 11, 2001 in…

A Brief History On March 27, 1964, Good Friday to Christians, a massive earthquake hit Alaska, fracturing the ground, knocking down buildings, and causing tsunamis, all of which killed at least 131 people.  Known variously as The Great Alaskan Earthquake, The Good Friday Earthquake, or The 1964 Alaskan Earthquake, by any name the massive magnitude 9.2 quake was the largest known earthquake in North American history. Digging Deeper Labeled a megathrust earthquake, one in which tectonic plates move to overlap each other, the massive quake lasted just over 4 and half minutes, probably seeming much longer to those who experienced…

A Brief History On March 26, 1934, the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland instituted their first ever practical examination of automobile drivers’ competence in order to be issued a driver’s license.  The UK, however, was way behind the trend to require a driver’s test, as France had instituted the dreaded procedure way back in 1899!  The United States lagged behind their European brethren in licensing drivers, although by 1918 all 48 states required license plates on motor vehicles.  When Britain started requiring a driving test that needed to be passed to get a driver’s license the…

A Brief History On March 25, 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the Axis Powers when they signed the Tripartite Pact, siding with the Germans, Italians and Japanese against most of the rest of the world in World War II.  Seldom do we hear mentioned in movies and television shows, or even in most popular books the part that other countries allied with the “Bad Guys” played in the biggest, deadliest war in human history.  Today we discuss some of these usually forgotten enemies of the Western Allies of World War II.  Some of these countries were actual treaty allies…

A Brief History On March 22, 1997, figure skater Tara Lipinski, age 14, became the youngest skater ever to win a World Championship.  (Okay, she was actually 14 years and 9 months old for you nitpickers.)  Prior to her history making performance at the World competition, Tara had won the United States National Championship and in 1998 would go on to win the Gold Medal at the Winter Olympic Games.  Lipinski is only 1 of many young athletes who have excelled beyond their seemingly tender years, and today we list 10 such young athletic stars that strike us as particularly…