A Brief History On July 28, 1935, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress first took flight, starting a career that many claim as the greatest bomber aircraft of all time. Of course, the Avro Lancaster crowd has something to say about that, and the eternal B-52, descendant of the Flying Fortress, will probably serve for 100 years before it is retired. Even the proponents of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator question the title going to the B-17, but among the men that flew them, the B-17 was and will always be the greatest. Digging Deeper When the giant (for its day) Boeing…
Browsing: July 28
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A Brief History On July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, starting World War I. When a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Archduke (heir to the throne) of the Austrian empire to protest Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbian territory, he never could have seen the incredible consequences of the worst war in human history (until World War II). Sometimes assassinations or attempted assassinations result in events unfolding differently than those anticipated by the assassin. Here we list 10 such incidents, in no particular order. Digging Deeper 10. Franz Ferdinand, 1914. As described above, all that was accomplished was the anger Austria-Hungary…
A Brief History On July 28, 1866, Vinnie (Lavinia) Ream, an 18 year old girl became the first woman in the United States to win a commission for a statue, that of the recently deceased President Lincoln. This statue became her most famous work, and it resides in the Rotunda of the US Capitol. Digging Deeper In true American fashion, she was born in a log cabin in Wisconsin in 1847. She attended Christian College in Missouri, now called Columbia College. She began her groundbreaking career as one of the first female US government employees, working at the post office. …
