Browsing: January

A Brief History On January 4, 1970, the Beatles, minus John Lennon, had their last studio session as the iconic group, marking an end of the phenomenon that was The Beatles, probably the greatest rock band of all time, and possibly the greatest musical act of any genre in music history. Digging Deeper That sad but sweet last session saw the three mop tops overdub and polish Paul McCartney’s “Let it Be,” a song that would go on to have the highest debut on Billboard and then reach #1 in the US. By April of 1970, Paul had announced he…

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A Brief History On January 3, 1961, a steam explosion occurred at the SL-1 US Army experimental nuclear reactor located outside Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaving three technicians dead, the only immediately fatal US nuclear reactor accident so far. Digging Deeper The explosion was caused by the too rapid withdrawal of a control rod, causing the reactor pile to go critical and creating a burst of intense heat that instantly vaporized the cooling water and causing the explosion. Incredibly, one of the nuclear techs was hit by a high-speed piece of the reactor and pinned to the ceiling, the shield plug…

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A Brief History On January 1, 2025, we all take a bold leap into the future, a new year filled with promise and perhaps with some concerns as well.  Fear not, for Major Dan at H&H is happy to tell you what will possibly happen in the coming year.  Of course, I make no guarantees, for as Donald Trump recently said, “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.” Digging Deeper Number one, as alluded to by the former president, all the bombastic campaign promises about lowering food and energy costs, etc., will fail to materialize, although we of course…

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A Brief History On September 7, 1978, a Bulgarian secret agent assassinated Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov, as the unfortunate man was strolling across the Waterloo Bridge in London.  The novel means of committing this murder was firing or jabbing a poison Ricin pellet from a specially adapted umbrella.  Markov thought little of the minor sting at the time but died four days later. Digging Deeper Some other unusual methods or weapons used in assassinations include: Edward II, King of England, had a red hot fireplace poker shoved up his butt in 1327. Alexander Litvinenko was the first ever murder victim…

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A Brief History On January 31, 1846, the result of the Milwaukee Bridge War was the formation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Fought over a bridge being built over the Milwaukee River, two of the three settlements in the area, Juneautown and Kilbourntown, were highly competitive with each other and along with Walker’s Point were incorporated as the Village of Milwaukee in 1839. Digging Deeper The intense rivalry between the leading citizens of each area boiled over in 1845 when one of the several bridges in the village was struck by a schooner sparking rumors of an intentional ramming.  The Kilbourntown people…

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