A Brief History On December 17, 1957, the United States successfully launched their first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The SM -65 Atlas became operational in September of 1959, closely following the Soviet R-7 Semyorka that had become operational in February of that year. Digging Deeper With the advent of these ICBMs, either the US or USSR could launch an unstoppable fleet of nuclear bombs at each other anywhere on the Earth. The stunning numbers of nuclear tipped missiles and nuclear warheads fielded by the two main Cold War powers included a maximum of 32,000 nuclear…
Browsing: December 17
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on December 17th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On December 17, 497 BC, the Romans celebrated their Pagan holiday, Saturnalia, a celebration honoring their god of agriculture (and a bunch of other things) with partying and sacrifice. On December 17, 1862, the stormy history of civil rights in United States was once again shamefully marred when Major General Ulysses S. Grant, future President of the United States, issued his infamous…
A Brief History On December 17, 1947, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet made its first flight. A graceful looking six engine jet bomber, this nuclear “big stick” of the US Air Force was destined to never drop a bomb in anger, although 2,042 Stratojets served from 1951 to 1977. Other highly capable bombers that never saw combat include: Digging Deeper The Convair B-36 Peacemaker, which entered service in 1948 and retired in 1959, 384 of these gigantic bombers were the largest planes in service while they flew. Powered by six propeller engines and four jet engines, the B-36 was defended by…
A Brief History On December 17, 2021, former police officer Kimberly Potter took the witness stand in her own defense at her trial for first-degree manslaughter (among other charges) for shooting Daunte Wright during an attempt to arrest him. Potter mistakenly drew her service pistol instead of her TASER gun and shot Wright as he attempted to flee the scene with another officer hanging from the vehicle Wright was driving. The Potter/Wright case is just another in the string of high profile police use of force cases that have been sensationalized and misrepresented in the media and political forums in…
A Brief History On December 17, 1989, The Simpsons premiered on American television with their first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” Not only does The Simpsons rank as probably the greatest animated television show of all time, it is also the longest running scripted primetime television series in TV history. Today we take a look at what we consider the 5 greatest animated television series of all time. As always, feel free to disagree with those that we have chosen and tell us which shows we should not have picked and what shows we have overlooked. (Sorry, Looney…