Browsing: December 5

A Brief History On December 5, 2014, the American space agency, NASA, successfully launched an Orion space capsule with a Delta IV Heavy rocket supplying the lifting power. The unmanned Orion space capsule launched on this test flight is the first of America’s next generation of manned space vehicles. Digging Deeper The US has been without a manned space system of its own since the last of the Space Shuttles were retired in 2011. American astronauts have had to hitch rides with spacecraft from other countries in order to go to and from the International Space Station. The Orion, named…

A Brief History On December 5, 1964, Captain Roger Donlon, US Army Special Forces, became the first Army Special Forces member (ever) and the first US military person to earn a Medal of Honor in the Viet Nam War. Digging Deeper Donlon took a roundabout path to his moment of greatness, being born in Saugerties, New York among 10 children in 1934.  Donlon joined the Air Force in 1953 after a year at the New York State College of Forestry, and was appointed to West Point in 1955.  For personal reasons Donlon quit West Point, but enlisted in the Army…

A Brief History On December 5, 1952, the people of London, England found out the hard way that smog is no joke.  Air pollution, cold weather, fog, lack of wind and a phenomenon known as an anticyclone combined in such a manner that huge quantities of smoke from factories and furnaces, largely from the burning of coal, was left lingering over the city. Digging Deeper The noxious smoke, at first believed to not be dangerous, even penetrated buildings, causing people respiratory distress.  Londoners called the episode, which lasted until December 9 when the weather finally cleared, “The Great Smog of 1952,” or…

A Brief History On December 5, 1945, a flight of U.S. Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers flew into history, providing grist for the paranormal mill that the Bermuda Triangle became! Digging Deeper The training flight of Avengers took off from Naval Air Station (NAS) Ft. Lauderdale at around 1410 hours (military time) for a routine navigation training flight.  Oddly, although necessary for over water navigation (remember, maps would not help!) each airplane was missing its clock.  Assuming the pilots had wrist watches, the flight took off as normal.  Things seemed to be going as planned, with a practice bomb drop…

A Brief History On December 5, 1933, history was made that would change the United States (back) forever!  Well, you never know, so maybe not forever.  In any event, this date was the day Prohibition ended in the United States, although its legacy lives on in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Digging Deeper The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, known as the Volstead Act had been passed in 1920 riding a wave of anti-alcohol sentiment, largely by women that had previously been active in the women’s suffrage movement. Apparently, women especially were likely to be anti-alcohol as they saw drunkenness as a…