A Brief History On August 16, 2024, we rushed to our local theater to watch the newest edition of the Alien movie franchise, Alien: Romulus. Alas, we did not see this summer blockbuster sci fi pic in IMAX or the latest movie development, 4DX. Nonetheless, the movie experience was definitely a must see for any fan of the previous movies. Digging Deeper Even if you have not seen all or some of the previous Alien movies, our opinion is that viewers new to the franchise will still enjoy the film without knowing the subtle nods to the other editions. As…
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 16th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 16, 1812, General William Hull of the U.S. Army surrendered Fort Detroit to an inferior English force. On August 16, 1858, a date earlier than you may have thought, the advent of instant electronic communications between Europe and North America was inaugurated by President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria of the UK via the “Transatlantic Cable.” On August 17, 1914,…
A Brief History On August 16, 1858, a date earlier than you may have thought, the advent of instant electronic communications between Europe and North America was inaugurated by President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria of the UK via the “Transatlantic Cable.” Digging Deeper Prior to radio, television, and satellite, electric communication was done via the telegraph wire, wire made of real metal that stretched from point to point. Cablemen had the job of laying 2,500 miles of copper wire covered in gutta percha, hemp, and tar that weighed an imposing one ton plus per mile! The 1857 attempt failed,…
A Brief History On August 17, 1914, the World War I Battle of Stallupönen was fought between the Imperial German army and the Imperial Russian army near Nesterov, Russia. The Germans were armed with the Mauser M98 chambered in 7.92 mm Mauser (sometimes called “8 mm Mauser”) and the Russians with the M1891 Mosin-Nagant rifle chambered in 7.62×54mmR. both rifles were 5 shot bolt action repeating rifles firing smokeless powder cartridges topped by copper jacketed pointy nosed bullets that were accurate and highly effective. Digging Deeper Bullets were originally merely lead round balls, and then were blunt tip hollow based…
A Brief History On August 16, 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson of the British Royal Air Force flew his Hawker Hurricane fighter into history during combat over England against the German Luftwaffe when he continued to fight an aerial battle despite his plane being on fire from 4 cannon shells and multiple machine gun bullets striking it from an enemy Me-110. Only after shooting down the enemy fighter despite being wounded and suffering severe burns, did Nicolson bail out, and was later awarded the Victoria Cross. Digging Deeper Air to air combat is a demanding and tricky business, and one of…