A Brief History On May 1, 1960, CIA employee Gary Powers was flying a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union when his high flying top secret U-2 spyplane was shot down by an SA-2 surface to air missile. Digging Deeper In the days before satellite imagery the only way for the US to know what the Soviets were up to was by flying U-2’s over their country. The Lockheed U-2 was designed by legendary airplane designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. Johnson had designed the World War II fighter, the P-38 Lightning and later designed America’s first practical jet fighter, the Lockheed…
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 May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that US Navy SEAL’s had raided the lair of Osama bin Laden, master terrorist, and killed him, finally achieving some justice for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. The Bush administration had failed to find bin Laden despite tough talk and grandiose threats, yet former vice president Dick Cheney among others has opined that President Obama is soft on terrorism. Here is a list of ridiculous statements about Barack Obama that are either untrue or in terribly poor taste. 10. Obama’s mother’s…
A Brief History On May 1, 1991, two incredibly impressive baseball records were set. Ricky Henderson stole his record breaking 939th base and Nolan Ryan pitched his 7th no hitter. Certain baseball records have an awe inspiring quality to them, even if they are later broken. Here we list 10 records that were at the time they were set astounding or lasted for an extraordinarily long time. Digging Deeper 10. Cal Ripken, Jr. Iron Man Streak. Ripken played in 2632 consecutive major league baseball games, having broken Lou Gehrig’s 56 year old record by 502 games! Many experts believed Gehrig’s…
A Brief History On May 1, 1991, two of major league baseball’s greatest players set records that had baseball fans buzzing. Digging Deeper The fleet footed Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics stole his 939th base, giving him the career lead as the all time base stealing champ. We also find on that same day Nolan Ryan pitching his 7th career no-hitter, giving him 3 more than any other pitcher in history. Henderson went on to steal a career total of 1406 bases, a staggering 50% more than Lou Brock, the previous record holder who had stolen “only” 938 bases. …
A Brief History On April 30, 1961, the Soviet Navy commissioned their first nuclear armed submarine, the K-19, later made famous in the 2002 movie, K-19: The Widowmaker. Other ships have had movie titles featuring their name, and we have 10 prominent ones listed here. Digging Deeper 10. Battleship Potemkin, 1925. A silent film about the revolt on board the battleship in 1905 that eventually led to the Russian revolution and the overthrow of the Czar. Considered a propaganda film, it was named by the Brussels World Fair in 1958 as the greatest movie of all time. Many modern movies…