A Brief History On July 16, 1945, Manhattan Project scientists held their breath as the clock ticked down to the first man-made nuclear blast in history. Digging Deeper Over a period of almost six years from its feeble first steps (3 years as a project in earnest), through 130,000 people working on the project and $2 billion taxpayer dollars the finest scientists in the world had developed methods of enriching uranium to a state where its nucleus could be split and creating plutonium, the two materials needed for the two different types of atomic weapons being considered. The uranium device would be…
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 July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This spacecraft would take 3 American astronauts to the Moon, landing 2 on its surface and return all 3 safely to Earth, less than a decade after the first manned space flight. The US and Americans have achieved many great things, and here we list 10 of them. Not all significant inventions or achievements are necessarily for humanitarian purposes, some of them are for war. Some, like DDT and the polio vaccines saved millions of lives. We list 10 that we think you…
A Brief History On July 16, 1862, David Farragut was appointed a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, the first officer to hold that rank. Being a 2 ocean nation, the US has needed a great 2 ocean Navy to protect the country and look after our interests. Along the way, many great sailors and others have furthered the capabilities of the US Navy and added to its rich history. Here we list 10 of those examples, of the hundreds or even thousands that could be listed (no significance to the order listed). ( Note: Although the US Marine…
A Brief History On July 15, 1954, the first prototype of what became the Boeing 707 and US Air Force C-135 family of airplanes made its first flight. Many airplanes have served a dual role well, moving cargo and people for civilian purposes or the same for the military. Sometimes a military airplane might be an ideal test aircraft for scientific purposes, or as a weather observing plane. Here we list 10 of these airplanes that have done double duty, and of course there are many more. Digging Deeper 10. Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny.” The most widely produced North American airplane…
A Brief History On July 15, 1838, while delivering a speech at Harvard Divinity School, Ralph Waldo Emerson described Jesus as a “great man,” but not “God.” He further caused a furor by discounting the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Bible as not true. Digging Deeper One of the guiding lights of the 19th Century philosophical Transcendentalist Movement, Emerson was a prolific writer of essays and a speech maker, and was a friend and mentor to Henry David Thoreau. In 1836, his essay, Nature, became the foundation of Transcendentalism, and his 1837 speech he called The American Scholar was called by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.…