Browsing: July

A Brief History On July 26, 2005, Mumbai, India, received an incredible 39.17 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.  Mumbai is the most populous city in what is now the most populous country in the world, with 12.5 million inhabitants.  Obviously, such an enormous amount of rain created massive flooding, and sadly about 1100 people died in the floods. Digging Deeper To put this enormous amount of rain in perspective, Cleveland, Ohio, a typical US city, has a record 24 hour rainfall of just 4.59 inches on September 7, 1996.  The contiguous states US record for a single…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on July 25th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On July 25, 1593, Henry IV, King of France, converted from Calvinism back to the Catholicism of his birth. On July 25, 1609, the excellently named British ship, Sea Venture, encountered serious storms while crossing the Atlantic Ocean en route to Virginia, and was purposely run ashore to prevent loss of the ship and passengers. On July 25, 1722, a war started…

A Brief History On July 25, 1984, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya exited her Salyut 7 space capsule while in orbit, thus becoming the first woman to ever engage in an EVA, or “extravehicular activity” in space.  Most of us usually call such activity a “spacewalk.” Digging Deeper The US has had 56 women in space, and the world has now sent into space about 75 ladies.  The Soviets were the real pioneers with women in space with Valentina Tereshkova becoming the first woman space traveler in 1963.  The Soviets did not send another woman into orbit until 1982, with the…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on July 24th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On July 24, 1814, British forces under Phineas Riall marched to the Niagara River to halt an American force from invading Canada. On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland, a passenger ship only 265 feet long and 38 feet wide, rolled over while tied up at dock, killing 848 people, the greatest loss of life in any Great Lakes maritime disaster. On July…

A Brief History On July 24, 1980, a quartet of Australian swimmers took the Olympic Gold Medal in the Men’s Swimming 4 by 100-meter medley relay race, the only time an American team failed to win this particular event. Digging Deeper While the US has dominated this particular event, the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, was plagued by politics and the US along with 65 other countries boycotted the games due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Australians, certainly among the greatest swimming nations, produced the “Quietly Confident Quartet,” a self-named crew consisting of Mark Kerry, Peter Evans, Mark…