Browsing: August

A Brief History On August 10, 1978, 3 members of a family died in a fiery crash when their Ford Pinto was rear-ended.  The bolts on the differential were positioned in such a manner that in the case of a rear-end collision, the bolts would pierce the gas tank.  Ford had known about the problem but chose not to correct it, electing to pay off lawsuits instead.  This goof is just one of the many really bad design features on of cars over the years.  The following article lists the 10 worst features, as based on the author’s opinion.  Digging…

A Brief History On August 10, 1948, the American public first heard an unseen television announcer say, “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!”  In the infancy of public broadcasting, Candid Microphone, a  popular radio show, was adapted for television by creator and producer Allen Funt. Digging Deeper With over 1,000 episodes in 38 full or partial seasons, Candid Camera proved very popular.  Hosts included Funt, himself, Arthur Godfrey, Durwood Kirby, Dom DeLuise, Suzanne Somers and former beauty queens Phyllis George and Bess Myerson among others. The idea was to have unsuspecting people spied on by a hidden camera while they were being subjected to pranks.  These…

A Brief History On August 9th, 1965, Tom Jones’s rendition of “What’s New Pussycat?”, the title song of the movie with the same name, was released in the UK. It was hugely successful in the music charts, having reached no. 3 in the US and no. 11 in the UK and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. Digging Deeper Two famous German-speaking actresses of the post-war years starred in the film adaptation: Romy Schneider and Ursula Andress. For more on them, please refer to Part 2 of the series. In this article we present German-speaking actresses…

A Brief History On August 9, 1969, members of the Manson Family, followers of cult leader Charles Manson, murdered actress Sharon Tate, her unborn baby, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, and three other people.  Manson would later stand trial for orchestrating the murders but was never found to be insane, though to the layman he certainly appears to be.  Many historical figures seem to be  insane but are never ruled as such by a court or by psychiatric professionals (except maybe after they are dead).  Here we nominate 9 such people for History and Headlines’s loony bin.   Digging Deeper 9. Insane Clown…

A Brief History On August 9, 1945, a Boeing B-29 bomber named “Bockscar” dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan, incinerating 39,000 people within seconds.  In the following weeks, thousands more would die from exposure and their injuries, and more would keep dying from radiation-related illnesses for years to come.  The Japanese quickly surrendered after this second nuclear attack, but the question of whether or not this bomb was necessary still haunts Americans to this day. Digging Deeper “Bockscar” was part of a special B-29 unit specially trained for dropping atomic bombs.  The bombers were modified B-29s that had their bomb…