A Brief History On June 7, 1982, the widow of the late King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Aron Presley, Priscilla Ann (Beaulieu) Presley, opened the estate of the late singer for public tours. The bathroom in which Elvis died of a heart attack in 1977 was kept off limits. The estate, named “Graceland” by its original owner after his daughter, Grace, is one of the most famous homes in the United States, and is second only to the White House in number of annual visitors with 650,000 Elvis fans visiting each year. Located in Memphis, Tennessee on 13.8 acres,…
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 June 6, 1944, the character played by Robert Mitchum in the movie The Longest Day (1960), Brigadier General Norman Cota, makes a stirring announcement to his men who are under heavy enemy fire and terrified of moving forward: “Only two kinds of people are gonna stay on this beach — those that are already dead and those that are gonna die. Now get off your butts! You guys are the Fightin’ 29th!” It turns out Norman Cota was a real US Army General (eventually Major General) and he really did rally his men of the 29th…
A Brief History On June 5, 1944, the British RAF plastered the Normandy coast of France with 5,000 tons of bombs dropped by over 1,000 bombers in preparation for the D-Day landings the next day. The bombing failed to destroy the German defenses, and the further bombing of the German “Atlantic Wall” after midnight on D-Day (June 6, 1944) by 2,000 allied bombers also failed to achieve any particular benefit, especially due to cloudy conditions and bombers being extra cautious to avoid dropping bombs on Allied troops taking part in the landings, causing the bombs to fall too far inland…
A Brief History On June 4, 1855, Major Henry C. Wayne got on board the USS Supply in New York Harbor and headed to the Mediterranean Sea to procure camels (29 of the Dromedary or one-hump variety and 2 of the Bactrian or two-hump kind) for use by the US Army in the Western United States. In 1848, Wayne had conducted a more detailed follow-up study to the 1836 report submitted to the Army by Major George Crossman who had recommended the US Army acquire camels as pack animals for hot weather environments. These reports and recommendations went nowhere until…
A Brief History On June 3, 1861, in the first organized land battle (barely a battle in reality) of the American Civil War, the Union Army with 3,000 men routed an untrained force of 800 Confederate volunteers in what it now West Virginia at Philippi, a small town that today has only about 3,000 residents. Touted as a huge victory for the Union, the “battle” would be fairly inconsequential except for the wounding of 2 Confederate soldiers that both required battlefield amputations, one of which fashioned his own homemade artificial leg that proved so successful the wounded soldier founded a…