A Brief History On August 16, 1927, the Dole Air Race began, with 8 airplanes taking off from Oakland, California and heading to Honolulu, Hawaii. Of the 8 planes that managed to get into the air and race, 6 were lost with the loss of 10 men. Only 2 of the planes made it to Hawaii. Sometimes races of any type go wrong, horribly wrong, and people or animals end up dead or maimed, sometimes not even the participants! Here we list 5 disastrous races. Digging Deeper 1. Dole Air Race, 1927. Also known as the Dole Air Derby, between 15…
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A Brief History On August 9, 1936, Clevelander and Ohio State University athlete James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens won his 4th Gold Medal at the 1936 Olympics, by anchoring the 4 X 100 m relay, winning in a world record time of 39.8 seconds. An international sensation, Owens was not even the first Olympic athlete to win 4 Gold Medals in an Olympics! Here we list 10 Greatest Olympic Athletes, or at least as we see it. (There is no special order to the list.) Digging Deeper 1. Jesse Owens, 1936. Not only a spectacular performance at the 1936 Olympics, but Owens…
A Brief History On August 8, 2017, we reflect on our screening of the upcoming (August 11, 2017) horror flick, Annabelle: Creation, a prequel to the Annabelle and Conjuring movie franchise. The quick and dirty on the movie is, the audience cheered and clapped at the end! We consider this reaction a sure sign of success. Digging Deeper An active audience participating in the film, laughing, gasping, and commenting, reminds us why we see movies in theaters instead of just on television at home. The attention of the audience was obviously held for the duration of the medium length 109 minute film. The movie builds the background of…
A Brief History On August 6, 1917, future actor, composer, and singer Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mitchum would live nearly to age 80 despite being a heavy smoker his entire adult life, with lung cancer and emphysema eventually doing him in. In honor of one of my favorite actors of all time and in a plea to all cigarette smokers out there to quit this life shortening habit, we list 10 Songs with the Word Cigarette(s) in the Lyrics. There are a bajillion of them, including several by Frank Sinatra, The Kinks, Blue Oyster Cult, the Cranberries,…
A Brief History On August 5, 1901, Irish track and field athlete Peter O’Connor set the official long jump record at 24’ 11 ¾”, recognized by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) a record for that event in 1912, when the event was first recognized with an official record. Prior to this momentous occasion, the “world record” in the long jump was unofficial, although of course people did keep track of such things. O’Connor’s record stood for an amazing 20 years, and he had previously set unofficial world records before this mighty leap. Here we list 10 of the…