A Brief History On December 3, 1997, a conference of countries of the world decided on conditions to draft a treaty banning the use of anti-personnel land mines. Although 121 nations signed the so called Ottawa Treaty (because it was signed in Ottawa, Canada), the United States, along with China, India, Israel, Iran and Russia refused to sign the humanitarian pact. When the largest or most powerful countries refuse to sign a treaty, what good is the treaty? Here we list some of the treaties the US has refused to join, despite nearly universal acceptance by other countries. Digging Deeper…
Browsing: December 3
Read More
A Brief History On December 3, 2005, Dick Rutan, record breaking aviator, became the first man to pilot a rocket powered airplane to deliver US Mail when he flew an XCOR Aerospace E-Z Rocket from Mojave, California to California City (both cities in the County of Kern). Digging Deeper Various forms of “email” have been around since the 1960’s, but when email joined forces with the Internet old fashioned paper letters became “snail mail.” Actually, the term snail mail was first used as far back as 1942 and numerous times since, usually as a derisive complaint about how long it…
A Brief History On December 3, 1971, amid the background of the Bangladeshi War of Liberation when East Pakistan was attempting to secede from West Pakistan, the military forces of Pakistan launched a pre-emptive assault against India, attacking airfields and military installations and triggering the Indo-Pakistani War, 13 days on the brink of a far larger disaster. Digging Deeper After World War II when imperial nations were forced to give up colonies, the British reluctantly gave India, the largest and richest colony, their long overdue independence. India was made up largely of a Hindu population, with a large Muslim minority. …
A Brief History On December 3, 1984, the terrible tragedy at Bhopal, India took place when a huge quantity of methyl isocyanate (MIC) escaped and exposed 500,000 people to this poison and other chemicals, over 2,200 of whom died immediately and perhaps 16,000 more deaths over the ensuing weeks. Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find the table set for disaster at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant built in 1969 to produce the pesticide “Sevin” and later the pesticide MIC when numerous leaks and other safety violations took place leading up to the disaster. Ignoring normal safety practices and…
