A Brief History On August 6, 1996, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States announced that a piece of a meteorite believed to have originated on Mars known as Allan Hills 84001 contained traces of extraterrestrial life. Digging Deeper The meteorite, found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica back in 1984, contained fossils of bacteria, which implies that such life had existed on Mars when the chunk of rock broke off and made its journey to Earth. Of course, the world took this news with enormous interest, and even President Clinton dedicated a speech about the discovery. …
Browsing: August 6
A Brief History On August 6, 2021, we got to watch our long awaited viewing of the latest film in the DC comic book based movie universe, The Suicide Squad, a sequel to the 2016 blockbuster movie, Suicide Squad, though in a stand alone sort of way, using some of but not all the same characters. In a word, this movie is Great! Action, lots of colorful action, gore and comedy rolled into a 132 minute package that feels like a half hour of mayhem. Wow, this time they really hit the mark… Digging Deeper While we do not like…
A Brief History On Friday, August 6, 2021, the popular YouTube channel UsefulCharts published a video counting down the top ten greatest ancient dynasties of all time. Our nomination for the “Greatest Ancient Dynasty of All-Time” has to be the “Five Good Emperors” of Rome, specifically Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. After all, the Roman Senate bestowed the title “Optimus Princeps” or “The Best Ruler” on the second of these emperors, Trajan. Digging Deeper Ruling from 96 AD through 180 AD, their succession was of the “adoptive” variety, whereby each emperor would choose his heir by merit rather…
A Brief History On August 6, 2001, a tragedy known as the “Erwadi fire incident” occurred in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. A fire broke out at the Moideen Badusha Mental Home in Erwadi Village, claiming the lives of 28 of the patients/inmates there. A fire and fatalities do not make for a strange tale, except in this case those poor mental patients were chained down! Run by a faith based organization, the mental home sought to “cure” its patients by caning and beating the patients while treating them with water from a holy shrine in the village. …
A Brief History On August 6, 1945, near end of World War II, a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber dropped a uranium gun-type (“Little Boy”) bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium implosion (“Fat Man”) bomb was dropped by another B-29 on Nagasaki. The bombs immediately devastated their targets and, over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 people in Nagasaki. World War II was one of the most deadly wars in history. Over 15,000,000 people were killed in combat. 25,000,000 more…