Author: Major Dan

A Brief History On September 22, 1979, a huge, unidentified double flash of light was seen by a US reconnaissance satellite near the Prince Edward Islands near Antarctica.  Known as the “Vela Incident” because of the satellite’s name, Vela Hotel, not much is publicly known about the incident, as the US government has kept much of the information secret. Digging Deeper The origin of the mysterious flash has been speculated to be a nuclear test kept secret from the rest of the world, perhaps by Israel and or South Africa, possibly a joint venture by those two nations.  Other explanations…

A Brief History On September 21, 1942, the first Boeing B-29 Superfortress made its first flight.  This sleek bomber would become the highest technology piston engine powered bomber of all time, as well as the mightiest bomber of World War II.  On top of that, it would also become the first nuclear bomber in history. Digging Deeper Needing a longer range bomber than the B-17 and B-24 “heavy” bombers already in service, especially in case Britain fell to the Nazi’s, American engineers feverishly worked on a new design that could fly farther and carry heavier loads than existing bombers.  The…

A Brief History On September 19, 1692, Giles Corey, age 81, became a footnote in the history of America by becoming the first and only man to be “pressed” to death during legal proceedings.  Caught up in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, Corey and his wife, Martha, were accused of witchcraft when one of the other accused witches, Abigail Hobbs, named the old couple as warlock and witch. Digging Deeper As you may already know, witches convicted during the Salem Witch trials were put to death by hanging, as was Martha Corey, and not by burning as the popular myth…

A Brief History On September 18, 1944, the British submarine, HMS Tradewinds, torpedoed and sank the Jun’yo Maru, a Japanese cargo ship transformed to carry prisoners.  Over 5000 people died in the tragedy, of which 1377 were Dutch prisoners of war, another 64 victims were British and Australian prisoners of war, and 8 were American prisoners of war.  Most of the rest of the victims were Javanese slave laborers, around 4200 of them. Digging Deeper Obviously, the skipper of the Tradewinds did not know the targeted ship was carrying prisoners, as the Japanese did not mark POW ships in any…

A Brief History On September 17, 1862, the same day that the bloodiest one day battle in American military history was fought (Antietam, or Sharpsburg) the civilian population of suburban Pittsburgh was touched by the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War when the Allegheny Arsenal blew up, killing 78 workers, mainly women (down to 15 years old). Digging Deeper A cartridge making industrial plant, the Allegheny Arsenal employed over a thousand workers and supplied the Union forces fighting in the Western half of the conflict.  Cartridges at the time consisted of greased paper containing a charge of black powder…