A Brief History On July 31, 1715, one of those events that leads to dreams occurred, when a storm off the coast of Florida sank all 11 Spanish treasure ships heading to Spain from Cuba. Digging Deeper Carrying a load of mostly silver, the fleet has been dubbed, “The 1715 Plate Fleet,” using the Spanish word for silver, “plata.” About 1,500 sailors drowned in the catastrophe, although a few survived to tell the tale. Treasure wrecks spawn mighty efforts to find and recover the lost treasure, and the occasional washing up of some of the 1715 Fleet’s treasure on beaches…
Browsing: July 31
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on July 31st. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On July 31, 1715, one of those events that leads to dreams occurred, when a storm off the coast of Florida sank all 11 Spanish treasure ships heading to Spain from Cuba. On July 31, 1948, the battleship USS Nevada (BB-36) was sunk by a torpedo from a Navy bomber, ending the career of possibly the most battered ship in history. On…
A Brief History On July 31, 2012, Ukrainian gymnast, Larisa Latynina, was passed as the most prolific Olympic Medal winner, when American swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Larisa dominated Olympic gymnastics from 1956 to 1964, winning 9 Olympic Gold medals and a total of 18 Olympic medals. No gymnast, male or female, has surpassed her total of Gold medals, and her total medal record lasted for nearly 5 decades before broken by Phelps. A remarkable athlete, Phelps won a total of 28 Olympic medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics, in which the 15 year old…
A Brief History On July 31, 1970, the British Royal Navy experienced one of the darkest days in their long and glorious history, Black Tot Day. On that day, the RN ended its long tradition of giving each sailor at sea a drink of rum. Digging Deeper While you may not personally miss this bygone practice, we ask, “What do you miss the most?” Some possible answers could be: (for Catholics) The Latin Mass School Dress and Grooming Codes Drive-in Movies Decent Meals and Service on Airliners Polaroid Cameras Phone Booths The Milkman Vinyl Records Sears Catalog Cheap Gasoline Hot…
A Brief History On July 31, 1970, the British Royal Navy experienced one of the darkest days in their long and glorious history, Black Tot Day. This episode was the last day the Royal Navy would follow the long tradition of supplying a daily drink of rum to their sailors. We first brought up this terrible turn of events in our article “10 Traditional Parts of Life That No Longer Exist (Or Barely!)” We have also touched on other articles that marveled at the things we did not have when this author was a lad, some of which may surprise…