Browsing: June 5

A Brief History On June 5, 1976, the Teton Dam on the Teton River in Idaho collapsed, a catastrophic failure while it was filling for the first time! Digging Deeper The 3,100 foot long earthen dam soared 305 feet high and was designed to contain over 288,000 acre feet of water.  Sadly, its failure cost the lives of 11 people and over 16,000 head of livestock.  Unsuitable soil used to construct the dam was blamed for the failure. The killer dam has yet to be rebuilt. Far from the worst US dam related disaster, the Teton Dam failure is dwarfed…

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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on June 5th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On June 5, 1829, the British ship, HMS Pickle, a 5 gun schooner, captured an armed slave ship, the Voladora, off the coast of Cuba. On June 5, 1893, the murder trial of Lizzie Borden began, Borden was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe. On June 5, 1916, Louis Brandeis was sworn in as the first Jewish Justice…

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A Brief History On June 5, 1893, the murder trial of Lizzie Borden began.  Borden was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe.  Despite the popular assumption of her guilt, she was acquitted in one of the most famous trials in US history. Digging Deeper Some of the other candidates as the most famous American trial include the following: In The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial of 1921 for robbery and murder, the men were believed by many to be railroaded because they were immigrants and anarchists in a case that saw worldwide attention. The Scopes Monkey Trial…

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A Brief History On June 5, 2019, we are supposed to celebrate National Positive Attitude Day, another one of those made up “holidays” so that every day of the year has some reason to exist.  So, we will attempt to honor the day by listing some of the things this author is “positive” about, though not necessarily in the sense envisioned by whomever dreamed up this festive day. Digging Deeper For starters, I am positive the other so called “National Days” listed for today are a waste of my time!  National Apple II Day, for example.  I have never owned…

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A Brief History On June 5, 1944, the British RAF plastered the Normandy coast of France with 5000 tons of bombs dropped by over 1000 bombers in preparation for the D-Day landings the next day. The bombing failed to destroy the German defenses, and the further bombing of the German “Atlantic Wall” after midnight on D-Day (June 6, 1944) by 2000 allied bombers also failed to achieve any particular benefit, especially due to cloudy conditions and bombers being extra cautious to avoid dropping bombs on Allied troops taking part in the landings, causing the bombs to fall too far inland…

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