Browsing: Sports

A Brief History On August 5, 1914, the first electric traffic light in the world was installed at the corner of E. 105 Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, just one of the many “firsts” for the “Forest City.”  You may know of Cleveland as the butt of jokes since the 1960’s, frequently targeted by -standup comedians and on the Laugh-In television show, especially when the Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, just one of the several times the central river of Cleveland caught fire but probably the most memorable as it garnered so much national attention songs were…

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A Brief History On August 3, 1997, the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand opened, taking the title as the tallest free standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere.  At 1076 feet tall, this telecommunications and observation tower is indeed tall compared to most buildings, even skyscrapers and most other towers, but it is positively puny compared to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which at 2722 feet is BY FAR the tallest free standing structure in the world, the tallest building ever built by human beings.  So far… Today we take a look at some the really tall…

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A Brief History On July 31, 1970, the British Royal Navy experienced one of the darkest days in their long and glorious history, Black Tot Day.  This episode was the last day the Royal Navy would follow the long tradition of supplying a daily drink of rum to their sailors.  We first brought up this terrible turn of events in our article “10 Traditional Parts of Life That No Longer Exist (Or Barely!)”  We have also touched on other articles that marveled at the things we did not have when this author was a lad, some of which may surprise…

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A Brief History On May 11, 2011, former NBA and current European league basketball player Robert Traylor died of an apparent heart attack at his home in Puerto Rico. He was only 34 years old and had played in a professional basketball game only a couple of weeks prior to his untimely death.  Sadly, the history of basketball is filled with similar sad stories, and today we take a look at some of these athletes that died too young. (By the way, the loss of Kobe Bryant in January of 2020 in a helicopter crash at the age of 41…

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A Brief History On April 30, 1993, tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by a “fan” obsessed with rival women’s tennis star Stefi Graf.  Seles was absent from pro tennis for 2 years after the attack, and despite being only 20 years old at the time of the attack never regained her championship form (formerly #1 in the world).  We used this horrible incident to start our article “10 Bizarre Injuries to Athletes” back in 2014, and today we take a look at another 10 such bizarre injuries to athletes. Digging Deeper 1. Kirby Puckett, Baseball. In…

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