Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On June 26, 1936, the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 made its first flight as the world’s first practical helicopter. Introduced into service with the Luftwaffe soon afterwards, the Fw 61 only had 2 copies built, but was a harbinger of things to come. Attempts to invent practical helicopters had been going on for decades, and in various countries, including contemporaneous with the Fw 61. Company namesake Professor Henrich Focke had invented various flying machines, including auto gyros prior to his collaboration with Gerd Achgelis, but the two engineers decided auto gyros were not quite the end result they…

A Brief History On June 25, 1947, boxer Jimmy Doyle of Los Angeles, California had the opportunity of his life by getting to fight the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson for the welterweight boxing world championship in Cleveland, Ohio. Unfortunately for Jimmy, the fight did not go as planned, and proved to be the last time he would ever box or for that matter do anything else, as he was knocked out in the 9th round and never regained consciousness in the St. Vincent Charity Hospital, declared dead hours later. Digging Deeper While it is not rare for a boxer to…

A Brief History On June 24, 1947, veteran pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing what he described as a line of shiny UFO’s flying past Mount Rainier (Washington) at a rate of “at least 1200 miles per hour.” The incident, known later as the Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting, was widely reported and became the first post-World War II UFO incident, becoming the first in what is considered the “modern era” of UFO sightings. Arnold’s description of the flat, metallic shiny objects led to the term “flying saucer” that became so familiar with UFO sightings. The incident and worldwide reporting spawned many other…

A Brief History On June 22, 1990, Checkpoint Charlie, the best known crossing point between Soviet-occupied East Germany to Western-occupied West Germany was torn down, a sign that the Cold War that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation since 1947 was drawing to an end. Here we list “10 More Symbols of the Cold War” after previously listing “10 Symbols of the Cold War,” weapons, people or other manifestations that symbolized the period from the end of World War II to the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.  (Honorable mention to the Soviet T-62 tank and the…

A Brief History On June 21, 2018, we celebrate the Summer Solstice just like our ancestors, welcoming the season of vacations, swimming pools, fishing, baseball, and barbecues. Another thing we love about Summer are the great songs about this greatest of seasons, or at least featuring “Summer” in the song. We list 10 songs we believe are either iconic as representing the genre of Summer songs or at least among our favorites. Digging Deeper 1. “A Summer Song,” Chad and Jeremy, 1964. Written by Chad Stuart with minor contributions by Jeremy Clyde (and others) this soft and beautiful song is…