A Brief History On January 18, 2005, Airbus, the European maker of jetliners, unveiled its flagship jetliner, the A380, the largest passenger plane ever built. How big is it? The A380 has over 40% more available floor space than a Boeing 747! Digging Deeper After the big jet’s unveiling at Toulouse, France, it made its first flight in April of 2005. By October 25, 2007, the A380 entered active service with Singapore Airlines and is currently used by Singapore, Lufthansa, Emirates, Air France, British Airways, Thai Airways, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, China Southern Airways, Etihad Airways, Malaysia, and Qantas Airways. …
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A Brief History On January 17, 1961, outgoing President Dwight David Eisenhower (better known as “Ike”) made his farewell address to the nation, a tradition of outgoing Presidents since George Washington left office. Digging Deeper Ike’s speech was unique in that he warned the public of the “Military Industrial Complex,” the big business of war. During the Eisenhower years, defense spending made up an enormous part of the US budget (roughly 75 to 55% of government spending!) compared to today (20-25% of government spending). Ike also warned of deficit spending and massive government subsidy of science and technology industries, lest…
A Brief History On January 16, 1970, one of America’s greatest architects and all around “Renaissance Man,” Richard Buckminster Fuller, was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. Mostly famous for his use of what he called the “geodesic dome” in architecture, Fuller, known simply as “Bucky” to friends, was also famous for his 30 books and penchant for inventing words and phrases. Digging Deeper Fuller is so highly regarded that a form of carbon molecules called “fullerenes” are named in his honor. Fuller also served as the second president of the genius organization, Mensa, from 1974…
A Brief History On January 15, 1559, Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England. In honor of that momentous event, this article presents a list of movies related to the history of England. This list also contains movies and TV series about her relationship with other countries because, as Rudyard Kipling asserts, “what do they know of England who only England know?”.1 Digging Deeper 5th Century King Arthur 12th Century The Lion in Winter Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Robin Hood The Pillars of the Earth (miniseries) 13th Century Ironclad Braveheart 15th Century Henry V (1989 film) Henry…
A Brief History On January 15, 2001, the online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia went operational, giving Internet users a marvelous resource for casually looking things up. Digging Deeper Owned and operated by the non-profit Wikipedia Foundation, Wikipedia is the largest single reference site on the Internet and is of course the largest online encyclopedia. Created by Jimmy Wales (MA University of Alabama) and Larry Sanger (MA and PhD from The Ohio State University), and at first only offered in an English language version, Wikipedia is now available in 250 languages and has an incredible 40 million articles! With over 18…