A Brief History On October 28, 2001, the indie movie, Donnie Darko, was released. Although, like most movies, numerous lines are noted as “memorable,” we find only “Why are you wearing that stupid bunny suit?” asked by Donnie to the large, demonic rabbit to be the best line in the film. Digging Deeper All films have memorable lines, some more than others. Here are some of our favorites: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, 1939. “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” The Captain in Cool Hand Luke, 1967. “A…
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 October 27, 1962, US Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson was shot down and killed while flying his U-2 spy plane over Cuba. Digging Deeper The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a face-off between the US and the USSR over the Soviets stationing nuclear missiles in Cuba, close to the American mainland. After two weeks of negotiations and nearly causing a nuclear war, national leaders reached a deal where the Soviets would remove nukes from Cuba and the US would remove nuclear missiles from Turkey and possibly Italy. Despite debate about taking drastic military action…
A Brief History On October 26, 1979, Kim Jae-kyu, the head of the South Korean CIA, assassinated the country’s president, Park Chung Hee. The president died on the spot of gunshot wounds to the chest and head. Digging Deeper One pervasive conspiracy theory regarding the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy is that the American CIA was somehow involved. While such theories are usually treated as forays into fiction, the assassination of the South Korean president by his own CIA show that the idea might not be all that farfetched. Director Kim used a Walther PPK to shoot his…
A Brief History On October 25, 1924, the Daily Mail, a London based British newspaper, published a fake letter called “the Zinoviev letter,” a letter said to be from Grigory Zinoviev, a Moscow based leader of the Communist International. The letter was a fake and intentionally presented to sway public opinion against the Labour Party in Britain’s 1924 elections. Digging Deeper The fake letter was successful in stoking anti-communist public hysteria and getting the Conservative Party a victory in the elections. While calling the media “Fake News” is often seen as a conspiracy theory ploy used by one side or…
A Brief History On October 24, 2017, rock and roll and New Orleans jazz pioneer Antoine “Fats” Domino died. His 1949 song, “The Fat Man,” is considered by some to be the first rock and roll hit, selling over a million copies. Elvis Presley and the Beatles were fans of Domino, and Fats is not the only great person of considerable girth. Digging Deeper Another rock and roller, Chubby Checker, got his stage name from a comparison to Fats Domino! Yet another rock and roll great, Mama Cass Elliot, is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and…