Browsing: April 28

A Brief History On April 28, 1192, the Christian King of Jerusalem, Conrad of Montferrat, perhaps better known as Conrad I, was murdered by an Islamic organization called the Order of Assassins, or the Hashshashins. A nobleman from Northern Italy, Conrad was one of the chief architects of the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and had only served as the elected King of Jerusalem for mere days before being assassinated. Digging Deeper Conrad was murdered while walking back to his home from a visit to Bishop Phillip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais, stabbed in the back and side by 2 assassins even…

A Brief History On April 28, 1503, the armies of Spain and France fought in Southern Italy at a place called Cerignola (near Bari), a battle decided by the small arms fire of muskets and arquebuses, one of the first European battles where small arms fire from firearms decided the battle. Although hand held firearms using black powder had been around for nearly 200 years, such weapons had usually not been decisive in battles fought mainly with edged weapons and later with a combination of edged weapons and cannons. Digging Deeper Gunpowder is an invention normally credited to the Chinese…

A Brief History On April 28, 1944, an Allied training mission in preparation for the upcoming D-Day invasion of France went from bad to worse, resulting in a bizarre exercise defeat that was kept secret (kind of) from the public for years.  (Typical government modus operandi!) Digging Deeper Exercise Tiger as the operation was called began on April 22, 1944 with drills moving men and equipment preparing to embark on invasion shipping.  On April 26 the embarkation was complete and the “invasion” fleet of 9 LST landing ships escorted by 2 destroyers, 3 torpedo boats and 4 gunboats sailed for the…

A Brief History On April 28, 1941, the company that would become Coach, Inc. maker of premium designer leather goods was founded. Digging Deeper The Gail Leather Company in New York City made top quality leather products by hand.  In the manner of the day, most products were typically brown or black throughout the 1940’s and into the 1950’s. (Note: This researcher could not find an exact date for the founding of the company, even after corresponding with Coach.  Thus, the April 28 date is arbitrary, although 1941 is correct.) The strong and supple nature of “broken in” baseball gloves…

A Brief History On April 28, 1988, while in flight a jet airliner had its roof suddenly and violently blown off, taking a hapless flight attendant with it.  Amazingly, the airliner landed safely with no other fatalities.  Sometimes bad things happen to aircraft, and some of those times bizarre or amazing things, even cracked things, happen.  Sure, having a nuclear bomber unintentionally drop its nuclear bombs or crash while carrying nukes is cracked, but it happened so many times those incidents do not qualify here.  Here are 10 instances when aircraft incidents are unusual enough to be considered bizarre. Digging…