Browsing: July 6

A Brief History On July 6, 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested his vaccine against Rabies on a boy that had been bitten by a rabid dog. Joseph Meister successfully resisted the deadly disease which prior to the Pasteur vaccine was a death sentence for anyone that contracted Rabies. Today we commemorate this great advance in the science of medicine by listing 10 diseases that either kill you or leave their victims in a horrible, debilitating state.  (Note: The Rabies vaccine does not cure Rabies, it prevents the onset of the disease.) if you are a praying person, perhaps praying…

A Brief History On July 6, 1957, women’s tennis star Althea Gibson of Harlem, New York (born in South Carolina) became the first ever person of African ancestry to win the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament in England.  Today we list 10 such achievements by Black (African heritage) athletes of a notable nature.  (There is no importance to the order listed.) Digging Deeper 1. 1st Wimbledon Champion, Althea Gibson, 1957.  Not only did Althea achieve this notable “first,” but she also had become the first Black tennis player to win a “Grand Slam” event by winning the 1956 French Open as well. …

A Brief History On July 6, 1999, US Army Private Barry Winchell died for a stupid reason.  One of his fellow soldiers had beaten him with a baseball bat the day before while Winchell was sleeping, because Winchell had a relationship with a transgender showgirl!  How exactly that was the business of the murderer, Calvin Glover, is hard to fathom.  (The showgirl was a former Navy Corpsman named Calpernia Addams.)  Glover, among others, had been harassing Winchell about his “girlfriend,” and Winchell had won a fight between the two of them.  Apparently Glover was goaded about being beaten up by…

A Brief History On July 6, 1947, the aptly named AK-47 assault rifle went into production.  After undergoing military trials in the Soviet Union, it was accepted for general use by the Red Army in 1949.  Today, the AK-47 is still in production in many nations, and about 1 out of every 5 firearms in the world is an AK-47 or a closely related weapon.  Production is 75 million rifles and counting, with AK family of related weapons accounting for another 25 million rifles, carbines, pistols and machine guns, including semi-automatic civilian models. Digging Deeper To put the enormous impact…

A Brief History On this day, July 6, 1893, the town of Pomeroy, Iowa, was almost completely destroyed by a massive tornado! Digging Deeper Named for landowner and congressman Charles W. Pomeroy (September 3, 1825 – February 11, 1891), the town’s history dates back to at least the 1870s when a railroad was planned to be built through the Iowa settlement.  As the town’s official website notes, this railroad “bridged the gap between small rural towns and larger cities” by taking “passengers to Fort Dodge and” hauling “cattle to Chicago.” After a couple decades of prosperity, tragedy descended upon the town on July 6, 1893.  In the heat…