Browsing: August 6

A Brief History On August 6, 1945, US Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress bomber, Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb ever to be used against a real target. Digging Deeper The major Japanese city of Hiroshima had been left largely undamaged by bombing for the specific reason of preserving the city for just such an attack, to better demonstrate the terrible power of the atomic bomb (or nuclear bomb as it is called today), and also to better analyze what damage such a bomb does to a real life city. The bomb was dropped with pinpoint accuracy and killed…

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A Brief History On August 6, 2005, Creme Puff, the oldest cat to make it into the 2010 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, died at the age of 38!  Digging Deeper For those of you who have ever owned a cat, you know that 38 years is more than a ripe old age; it is next to impossible for any cat to reach.  In human terms, this particular cat made it to 169 years of age, an age certainly not experienced by any man or woman in modern history.   If your cat makes it to 15, that is already good, and every year beyond that is…

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A Brief History On August 6, 1964, a University of North Carolina graduate student studying climate cut down the oldest known tree in the world, the 5,000-year-old “Prometheus,” a Bristlecone Pine located on Wheeler Peak in Nevada.  The icing on the cake?  The U.S. Forest Service allowed it! Digging Deeper Why would anyone cut down the oldest tree on Earth while it was still healthy and sound?  There are quite a few answers to that question, and conflicting ones at that.  Various stories have circulated as to why the tree was cut down instead of just a core sample taken.  These range from: 1) broken…

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A Brief History On August 6, 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.  An American with German parents, Ederle had already won a Gold Medal and 2 Bronze Medals in the 1924 Olympics when she dared the cold, rough waters of the Channel.  Many women over the years have become famous while wearing swimsuits, whether in movies, posters or in competitive swimming.  Here we list 10 of the most famous women in bathing gear.   Digging Deeper 10.  Gertrude Ederle. Already a famous swimmer when she swam the 20+ miles across the English Channel, Ederle’s time of…

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