Browsing: August

A Brief History On August 8, 1918, the Allied offensive known as the “Hundred Days Offensive” began with the start of the Battle of Amiens.  Allied forces swept 7 miles into German lines, an incredible distance when in the previous 4 years, progress had been measured in feet or yards.  The Battle of Amiens was the first in a string of victories that would carry the Allies to victory in World War I but also inevitably sow the seeds of World War II! Digging Deeper Both sides experienced tremendous effects on morale due to the huge early Allied success of the…

A Brief History On August 8, 2000, 136 years after she sank with all hands, the Confederate submarine, the Hunley, was raised to the surface.  Throughout history, men have built famous ships, and many of those ships have found their way to the bottom of the sea.  Some of the shipwrecks have been found and either raised, salvaged, explored, or made into shrines.  Here we list 10 of the most famous ones.   Digging Deeper 10. Sultana, 1865. About 1,800 lives were lost when this Mississippi side-wheel steamboat’s boiler blew up in 1865.  Her wreck lay undiscovered until 1982, when it was found in a…

A Brief History On August 7, 1942, U.S. Marines landed on an island few Americans had ever heard of, Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.  After months of being on the defensive, defensive victories at Coral Sea and Midway combined with the rapid buildup of troops and industrial production gave the U.S. its first opportunity to start taking instead of losing ground in the Pacific theater of World War II. Digging Deeper Although obscure in the minds of Americans, Guadalcanal is not an insignificant island.  Sprawling over 2000 square miles and with mountains soaring over 8,000 feet, it is the world’s 110th largest island, about the…

A Brief History On August 7, 1909, Alice Huyler Ramsey and 3 other women completed a 59-day road trip from New York to San Francisco, the first women to drive across the continent in a car.  Other women have also been famous or notorious for what they did in or on cars; some may have already been famous and others achieved fame because of their association with a car.  Here we list 10 such women.  (Dishonorable Mention to Britney Spears for not knowing how to get in or out of a car and to Lindsay Lohan for not knowing how to drive.)…

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…