Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On July 25, 1609, the excellently named British ship, Sea Venture, encountered serious storms while crossing the Atlantic Ocean en route to Virginia, and was purposely run ashore to prevent loss of the ship and passengers. These would be colonists of the Virginia Colony instead found themselves on the uninhabited Island of Bermuda, establishing a European presence that continues to this day. Digging Deeper About 665 miles East-Southeast of North Carolina, Bermuda is in the Atlantic Ocean, unlike the other European settled islands in the New World, most of which are either adjacent to North or South…

A Brief History On July 17, 1918, in the latter stage of World War I, the RMS Carpathia, a ship made famous for rescuing 705 of the passengers of the infamous RMS Titanic when she sank in 1912, was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by German submarine SM U-55 and sunk, losing only 5 lives in the process, a far different circumstance than the Titanic. Digging Deeper Carpathia, completed in 1903, was built for the Cunard Line of shippers, an intermediate sized ship not designed to compete with the very largest and fastest ocean liners, but to operate economically…

A Brief History On July 20, 2018, horror movie fans are treated to an opening of a major motion picture in the murder/suspense/slasher genre with the modern aspect of computer culture as the background. The new film, Unfriended: Dark Web, is a sequel of sorts to the 2014 film, Unfriended, although the new movie is a stand alone film that does not rely on any part of the previous movie. Well directed by Stephen Susco, who previously directed The Grudge, The Grudge 2, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D (all good horror movies), Dark Web delves into the Dark Web, just…

A Brief History On July 16, 1862, we commemorate the birthday of a significant African-American woman, Ida Wells (who first developed statistics on lynching in the US). In honor of this historic Black American Woman, today we choose to highlight the accomplishments of Eight Great Black American Women, having previously recognized “7 Great Black American Men.” Digging Deeper 1. Michelle Obama, first African American First Lady of the United States. Not only was Michelle Obama the first African American woman to serve as the First Lady of the United States by virtue of being married to President Barack Obama, she…

A Brief History On July 15, 1815, Emperor Napoleon I of the French surrendered to the British aboard the HMS Bellerophon. We have previously used this historic occasion to commemorate 10 ships that had nifty, martial sounding names that seemed likely to inspire their crews. (We have also noted goofy ship names in the past, “June 5, 1829: 10 Goofy Names for Ships”.) Today we name 10 More Ships with Cool Names since we certainly did not get all the good ones the first time. What ship names would you add to the list? (As previously noted, the British are…