A Brief History On May 26, 1951, Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, California. She would grow up to earn BA, BS, MS and PhD diplomas from Stanford University, and in June of 1983 became the first American woman to take a ride into space, via the Space Shuttle Challenger. Digging Deeper Ride became the third woman space explorer, having been preceded into space by Soviet cosmonauts Belarusian Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Russian Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. Since the flights of these history making women, women have made over 75 space flights by at least 70 women. In…
Author: Major Dan
Major Dan
Major Dan 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.
A Brief History On May 21, 2023, movie fans lost a beloved macho British actor when George Raymond Stevenson died at the too early age of 58. The big man took ill while filming for a new film in Italy, Cassino in Ischia, and no cause of death was given. Digging Deeper Stevenson played many macho characters befitting his rugged good looks, including many historical related roles such as a knight of the Round Table, a Roman soldier, mobster Danny Greene, the pirate Blackbeard, the Viking Ohthere of Hålogaland, Ferdinand I of Naples, James IV of Scotland, and other adventure…
A Brief History On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a bold announcement to Congress that the US “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Kennedy’s bold plan was later proven to be true, as the successful Apollo 11 moon landing took place in 1969. What may surprise you, is that at the time of Kennedy’s announcement, 58% of Americans opposed the idea! Digging Deeper Some other bold presidential plans, promises, and pronouncements have included: 1928: Presidential Candidate Herbert…
A Brief History On May 24, 1962, an American Atlas LV-3B rocket blasted off, carrying astronaut Scott Carpenter in his Project Mercury space capsule he had named Aurora 7, the 6th manned space flight in history. Digging Deeper Manned space flight began in April of 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made his historic trip into orbit, and a month later the Americans launched astronaut Alan Shepard into space, although on a sub-orbital flight. Project Mercury was the NASA answer to the Soviet Vostok manned space capsule, and each Mercury capsule contained a single astronaut. Designed by Belize born engineer…
A Brief History On May 23, 1829, Austrian maker of keyboard instruments, Cyrill Demian, a man of Armenian descent, was granted a patent for his new musical instrument, the Accordion. Digging Deeper As with so many other inventions, the actual inventor of the accordion is disputed, with some giving Christian Buschmann of Germany, credit as the real inventor. Some other instruments let their name lead you to their inventor, such as the Saxophone, invented by Adolphe Sax of Belgium in the 1840s, and the Sousaphone, of course invented by the March King himself, John Philip Sousa, in 1893, although the…
