A Brief History On November 21, 1986, Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North, a member of the National Security Council of the Ronald Reagan administration, was busy shredding documents, destroying evidence of criminal activity of the Reagan administration as part of the Iran-Contra Affair. Digging Deeper North was assisted by his comely secretary, the auspiciously named Fawn Hall, who later traded immunity from prosecution for testimony against North. Of course, Hall realized that the shredding of documents was illegal, evidenced by her statement that, “Sometimes you have to go above the law.” This statement was exactly the sort of rationalizing…
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 November 20, 1998, a huge step in the history of space exploration took place when the Zarya segment of the International Space Station (ISS) was launched, the first part of the largest man-made object to orbit the Earth. Still in use, the ISS can actually be seen by the naked eye from Earth. Digging Deeper Zarya (sunrise in Russian), was designed by the Russians for use with their Mir space station. Called a Functional Cargo Block, this segment of the ISS was originally used to provide electricity, storage, propulsion and guidance during the early stages of…
A Brief History On November 19, 2004, the National Basketball Association reached perhaps its lowest point in its history when players and fans engaged in a rumble at The Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit, Michigan. Digging Deeper The Detroit Pistons, long known as “the bad boys” of the NBA had a history of being a rough and tumble team, with physical play and intimidating behavior. These Pistons could obviously play basketball well, too, as evidenced by being reigning NBA champions. The Pistons had beaten the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals the previous season, and the Pacers were…
A Brief History On November 18, 1963, Bell Telephone introduced a new way to dial a telephone, something referred to as “dual-tone multi-frequency” (DTMF) technology, or Touch-Tone (the trademarked name) dialing. Also known as push button phones, these would go on to replace the old rotary dial type of telephone (also known as “pulse dialing”) so that today it is rare to even see an old fashioned dial type phone. Digging Deeper Making a lot of calls in the old days was tedious, and tired, sloppy fingers would often slip out of the little round fingertip receptacles causing the caller…
A Brief History On November 17, 2005, the puppy that came to be known as Giant George was born in Arizona, a puppy that would become the tallest living dog in the world and as far as we know, the tallest dog ever at that time. Digging Deeper A Great Dane, Giant George grew to a height of 43 inches (110 centimeters) which bested the previous record holder, Titan (another Great Dane) by ¾ of an inch, a clear margin. Note: Dogs are measured at “the withers” to establish their height. (withers- the ridge between the shoulder bones, used to…