A Brief History On December 13, 1577, Francis Drake set out from Plymouth, England on his ship, the Golden Hind, on a voyage that would take the ship and crew around the world, the first circumnavigation of the globe by an English vessel. This voyage, of course, has gone down in history as a famous one, as have the rest of the voyages listed here. We, however, will provide you with some little-known facts about each of these voyages that your teacher probably never told you. Digging Deeper 5. HMS Beagle, 1831. The HMS Beagle was made famous by Charles…
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 December 12, 1941, American forces were still reeling from the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor when Philippine-American pilot Jesus Villamor led a flight of Boeing P-26 “Peashooter” fighter planes against superior Japanese aircraft that were raiding Batanga Airfield. Digging Deeper Superb Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter planes were escorting G3M Nell bombers. The Philippine-American force had only a handful of greatly outclassed P-26s. Despite the odds, Villamor managed to shoot down 2 Zeros while his men shot down an additional Zero and a Nell, an incredible feat considering the differences in the quality of airplanes involved. The…
A Brief History On December 11, 1941, dictators Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy made an enormous blunder, perhaps one that cost them the World War II, when they declared war on the United States. Digging Deeper (Summary and translation of the above video: Hitler speaks to the Reichstag and, in the presence of the Italian and Japanese ambassadors, declares war on the U.S., calling American President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) a war agitator and a hypocrite.) The declaration came just 3 days after the U.S. had declared war on Japan the day after having been attacked at Pearl Harbor. (Of…
A Brief History On December 10, 2013, Mary Barra became the first woman appointed head of an automobile company when she became CEO of General Motors Corporation. GM is a giant company with a convoluted bureaucracy that has taken it from being the biggest, most important company in the world to being a blundering corporate joke that needed a government bailout to survive. Digging Deeper From 1931 to 2007, GM led the world in auto sales. In the meantime, Toyota of Japan has dethroned GM as the biggest producer of motor vehicles. GM is still right near the top though, but its market…
A Brief History On December 9, 1979, history was made when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the smallpox virus in nature had been made extinct. Only samples in labs for scientific purposes remained. Digging Deeper Smallpox is the first and so far only (major) human disease to be totally eradicated by the efforts of human science and medicine. A terrible disease, smallpox may have first shown up in humans anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 years ago and regularly killed millions of people each year. Many historical figures died of the disease, and the mummy of the Pharaoh Ramses V of Egypt even…