A Brief History On January 27, 1939, one of the great American fighter planes of World War II, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, made its first flight. Appropriately named, the Lightning was the fastest fighter in the world at that time, being the first to exceed 400 mph in level flight. Digging Deeper The Lightning was designed by the master aircraft architect Clarence Kelly Johnson who also designed the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, the Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Conceived as a high-speed, high-altitude (44,000 feet!) interceptor, at its introduction, the twin-engine Lightning…
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.
Read More
A Brief History One week ago, on January 19, 2015, we featured 10 sets of famous siblings who had achieved greatness. Today, we list 10 more sets of famous siblings with whom you may or may not be familiar, but who at one point in time had been prominent. This time we are including fictional siblings as well as real relatives. Digging Deeper 10. The Thompson Twins (fictional). Not really twins or even siblings, this rock group, who played from 1977 to 1993, hit the charts with “Hold Me Now” and “Doctor Doctor” among other hits. Honorable mention to Twisted Sister,…
A Brief History One year ago today, on January 25, 2014, an unknown thief or thieves stole a reliquary from an Italian mountainside chapel containing a piece of the bloodied robe Pope John Paul II had been wearing when he had gotten shot during the failed 1981 assassination attempt on his life. Obviously, if a person or persons were true believers in the Catholic faith, they would not steal such a holy relic because whatever magical properties it might have had would certainly be cancelled by the wrath of God, or at least so you would think. Digging Deeper Italian police believed the theft was…
A Brief History On January 24, 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began its operations. This new agency was born from the ashes of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. It had been painfully obvious that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and military intelligence agencies had not been effectively communicating with each other and that unless something was done to institutionalize such coordination, the U.S. would be vulnerable to more such attacks. Digging Deeper Given the mission of protecting the United States and its territories from both manmade and natural disasters, as…
A Brief History On January 23, 971, troops of the Chinese Song Dynasty managed to defeat the War Elephant Corps of the Southern Han Kingdom by the use of deadly crossbows. In those days, elephants were the equivalent of today’s tanks and were a fearsome and seemingly unstoppable force on the battlefield. There was nothing else like warrior pachyderms until tanks were introduced in World War I. Digging Deeper The crossbow, consisting of a horizontal bow crossed by a straight stock held by the bowman, had been invented in China perhaps as early as the 4th century B.C. or even earlier. The string would be held back…