A Brief History On February 7th, 2023, US President Joe Biden gave his second State of the Union Address. Afterwards, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican response to the President’s address. Digging Deeper I have made polls for each speech in the community area of my YouTube channel and on Twitter where you are welcome to vote your grade for each speech. As possible grades, an A equals “excellent,” a B equals “good,” a C equals “average,” a D equals “below average,” and an F equals “failure.” Please also feel welcome to reply with an explanation of your chosen…
Browsing: February 7
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on February 7th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On February 7, 1497, the followers of Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola of Florence, Italy, gathered and burned a large quantity of objects they referred to as “vanities,” objects such as cosmetics, books, artwork, mirrors, fancy clothes, playing cards, and musical instruments, any objects these religious zealots thought could lead people to sin. On February 7, 1795, the 12th state needed to ratify…
A Brief History On February 7, 1984, two astronauts from the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-41-B made space exploration history by taking the first untethered space walk outside of their space ship. Digging Deeper Not being attached by any sort of lifeline had to be a terrifying prospect, but astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart, both on their first space flight, operated outside the Challenger free of any safety line for over 5 hours. In 1972, President Richard Nixon announced the NASA Space Shuttle program, an ambitious program sadly remembered for the Challenger and Columbia disasters, but…
A Brief History On February 7, 1981, a Soviet airliner carrying 6 crewmen and 44 passengers crashed immediately after takeoff from Pushkin Airport near Leningrad, killing all 50 people aboard the jetliner. Among the passengers killed, were 16 senior Soviet officers, Admirals and Generals of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, effectively decapitating one of the most powerful military units in the world. As we have repeatedly in the past, we take another look at what we call a “Naval Oops Moment.” Digging Deeper Unlike other naval disasters we have reported on, this incident did not entail ships or even the ocean,…
A Brief History On February 7, 1863, the waters off New Zealand witnessed the worst maritime disaster in that country’s history when the Royal Navy corvette, HMS Orpheus went aground and sank while trying to enter Manukau Harbour, leaving 189 of the 259 man crew dead. We have discussed numerous naval and maritime “oops moments” in which blunders have sunk or heavily damaged ships, often with the cost of many lives. Digging Deeper The Orpheus was fitted out as a “full rigged ship,” although she also had a steam engine that powered a single screw drive (propeller). Classed as a…
