A Brief History On May 11, 1945, the Essex Class U.S. aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill was struck by two Japanese Kamikaze (suicide) aircraft during the battle for Okinawa. In spite of severe damage and 346 fatalities, the Bunker Hill was not lost as were none of the 24 Essex Class carriers built during World War II. Digging Deeper It became apparent early in the Pacific theater of the war that the battleship no longer reigned supreme, and it was the aircraft carrier that would take up the mantle as a navy’s capital ship. Seeing an extreme need for many carrier groups, the United States went…
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 8, 1877, the first of what has become perhaps the best known dog show in the world took place in New York City’s Gilmore Garden (later to become Madison Square Garden). A group of hunters and dog enthusiasts had gotten together at the Westminster Hotel to form the Westminster Kennel Club, with the primary purpose of holding a dog show. Digging Deeper The Westminster Kennel Club is actually older than the American Kennel Club (AKC), and was the first club admitted to the AKC for membership. Back then for the first 20 years of the…
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…
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…