A Brief History On May 15, 2010, Australian 16 year old Jessica Watson completed a non-stop and solo unassisted sail voyage around the world, the youngest person to achieve this feat. Digging Deeper Watson piloted a 33.6 foot sailboat on her trip of seven months that covered nearly 20,000 nautical miles. She is just one of many people that achieved great feats before turning 18 years old, some of whom include: American Marjorie Gestring became the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in 1936 when she won the 3-meter diving event at the age of 13. Eight Olympic champions have been age…
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A Brief History On May 14, 2008, one more sports related riot took place in Manchester, England, when fans of the Zenit Football Club of St. Petersburg, Russia, went hand and foot with fans of the Rangers Football Club of Glasgow, Scotland. Digging Deeper During the 2008 UEFA Cup final held near Piccadilly Gardens of Manchester, a failure of a big screen TV that had been set up to allow football fans not in the stadium to watch the match triggered the riot. A crowd of 200,000 Rangers fans had made the trip to Manchester to watch their beloved team,…
A Brief History On May 13, 1950, the first Formula One World Championship race was held in England. That race was won by Italian driver Giuseppe Farina driving an Alfa Romeo with an average speed of 146.3 KPH. Formula One, or F1, is perhaps the premier auto racing form, using single person cars with open wheels that use wings fore and aft to provide downforce. Digging Deeper Depending on the source, F1 cars can achieve speeds up to 256 MPH, but about 35 MPH less in a race. By comparison, an Indy car racer posted a four-lap average of 234.2…
A Brief History On April 29, 1967, heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, was stripped of his crown when he refused induction into the US military. He later was vindicated and regained his championship belt in the ring, and today we look at some sports champions that were stripped of their honors. Digging Deeper One of the saddest and most famous cases was Olympic champ Jim Thorpe, stripped of his Gold Medals won at the 1912 Olympics in the Decathlon and Pentathlon because he had once played semi-pro baseball. In 1982, his honors were posthumously returned. Performance enhancing drugs have cost…
A Brief History On April 3, 2024, Americans celebrate National Walking Day, a day celebrated only since 2007 in spite of being an activity people have been doing since proto-humans came down from the trees. Digging Deeper People seem to walk as little as possible to travel from point A to point B, and yet all sorts of walking machines, treadmills, and elliptical machines, are sold every year. In honor of those blessed with the ability to perambulate, stroll, trudge, hike, amble, plod, march, tramp, stride, and tread, here are a few facts about walking. You burn about 5 calories…
