A Brief History On May 4, 1959, the first ever Grammy music awards were held, with no category for rock and roll despite the fact that this new type of music had already long taken the country by storm. Digging Deeper The big winners with 2 Grammys apiece were: Ella Fitzgerald (Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female and Best Jazz Performance by an Individual, for compilations of the Irving Berlin songbook and the Duke Ellington songbook, respectively); Henri Mancini (Best Arrangement and Album of the Year, both for The Music from Peter Gunn); Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., better known by his stage persona…
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 April 27, 2005, Airbus, the multi-national European jetliner manufacturer, announced the first flight of its “Super Jumbo” passenger jet, the A380. Not content to give it just a partial upper deck such as the Boeing 747, the A380 has a full-width upper deck extending the entire length of the passenger cabin. Digging Deeper As the largest jet liner ever built, in its “3-class” mode, the A380 can carry 525 passengers in the first, second and economy classes. In its all-economy class configuration, it can carry a mind boggling 853 passengers! This capacity bests the 747-8 which has a…
A Brief History On April 20, 1818, accused British murderer Abraham Thornton was set free after his accuser refused to fight him in a “trial by combat.” Digging Deeper Thornton had walked a girl home from a dance, and the next day the girl was found drowned in a pit. Thornton was charged with murder but was acquitted at trial. This is where things begin to get a bit different from the American idea of due process. As was his right based on an archaic English law, the brother of the dead girl, however, insisted that Thornton be retried. Thornton, however, invoked another medieval English law…
A Brief History On April 13, 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods won his first Masters golf tournament, becoming the youngest player ever to do so. Not only that, but he won by a crushing 12 strokes and seemed already well on his way to becoming the greatest golfer of all time. Newsflash: On April 12, 2015, Jordan Spieth was crowned the second youngest Masters winner of all time after Tiger Woods! Digging Deeper If one regards victories in the 4 major gold tournaments (Masters, British Open, U.S. Open and PGA Championship) as the measuring stick, however, then it is Jack Nicklaus, with his…
A Brief History On April 6, 2011, the second San Fernando mass killings incident was discovered. On February 22, 2014, the day I (Major Dan) actually wrote this article, cable and national news outlets trumpeted the capture of Mexican drug Kingpin, Joaquin Guzman, known as “Shorty” or “El Chapo” in Spanish. Digging Deeper Although not the drug lord responsible for the San Fernando massacres, as head of the Sinaloa cartel his underlings have committed perhaps hundreds of murders, massacres, and have certainly planted more than a few mass graves! Making billions of dollars of ill gotten profits a year, Guzman…