A Brief History On January 17, 1961, outgoing President Dwight David Eisenhower (better known as “Ike”) made his farewell address to the nation, a tradition of outgoing Presidents since George Washington left office. Digging Deeper Ike’s speech was unique in that he warned the public of the “Military Industrial Complex,” the big business of war. During the Eisenhower years, defense spending made up an enormous part of the US budget (roughly 75 to 55% of government spending!) compared to today (20-25% of government spending). Ike also warned of deficit spending and massive government subsidy of science and technology industries, lest…
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 January 16, 1970, one of America’s greatest architects and all around “Renaissance Man,” Richard Buckminster Fuller, was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. Mostly famous for his use of what he called the “geodesic dome” in architecture, Fuller, known simply as “Bucky” to friends, was also famous for his 30 books and penchant for inventing words and phrases. Digging Deeper Fuller is so highly regarded that a form of carbon molecules called “fullerenes” are named in his honor. Fuller also served as the second president of the genius organization, Mensa, from 1974…
A Brief History On January 15, 2001, the online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia went operational, giving Internet users a marvelous resource for casually looking things up. Digging Deeper Owned and operated by the non-profit Wikipedia Foundation, Wikipedia is the largest single reference site on the Internet and is of course the largest online encyclopedia. Created by Jimmy Wales (MA University of Alabama) and Larry Sanger (MA and PhD from The Ohio State University), and at first only offered in an English language version, Wikipedia is now available in 250 languages and has an incredible 40 million articles! With over 18…
A Brief History On January 14, 1950, the MiG-17 Soviet jet fighter made its first flight, a plane that would go on to become the 3rd most produced jet fighter in aviation history. (With 11,060 built, only the MiG-15 and MiG-21 outnumbered it.) Digging Deeper A single engine high subsonic fighter, the MiG-17 was known by its NATO designation Fresco. It was basically an upgraded MiG-15, simple, rugged, reliable, and packing a punch of 2 X 23 mm cannons and 1 X 37 mm cannon, heavier armament than the 6 X .50 caliber machine guns typically found on early US…
A Brief History On January 13, 1942, automobile pioneer and magnate Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company patented the plastic automobile. This innovative car was built mostly of soybean derived plastics around a tubular metal frame, and for good measure ran on ethanol instead of gasoline! Digging Deeper Ford’s futuristic car was not built for production, but later cars would be made of fiberglass and plastic bodies (notably Corvette, Saturn, Lotus and Studebaker Avanti), and today we are seeing increased use of carbon fiber in auto construction. Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but his innovations and aggressive…