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 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…
A Brief History On August 3, 1960, the Esch family welcomed baby Eric into the world, little realizing this tiny baby would grow up to be a 425 pound behemoth of boxer, kickboxer, Toughman, MMA fighter, and of course, reality television star. Digging Deeper Born in Georgia and brought up in Michigan, (Esch picked up the nickname “Butterbean” due his large size, overweight even as a child, when he was forced to go on a diet to get under the 400 pound weight limit for Toughman), Esch got strong from hard physical work in construction, Eric was dared to enter…
A Brief History On July 29, 1973, British race car driver Roger Williamson met his death when his Formula 1race car crashed at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort Circuit in the Netherlands. The 25 year old 2 time British Formula 3 champion was trapped under his flipped car, not seriously hurt from the crash, but was burned to death as the car was engulfed in flames. We wrote about that crash in our July 29 article, “10 Famous Car Wrecks”. Today we look at another 5 famous/infamous car crashes that you may find interesting. Digging Deeper 1. Tiger Woods, November…