A Brief History On June 23, 1973, British serial arsonist and murderer, Bruce George Peter Lee started a fire that killed a 6 year old boy, his first known victim. The fire, like the next 10 that followed was ruled accidental after investigations, and was not found to be arson and murder until Lee confessed after being caught for an 11th fire. Digging Deeper Born Peter Dinsdale in 1960, he had changed his name to Lee in honor of martial arts actor Bruce Lee. The son of a prostitute, Lee was born with a birth defect that left him lame…
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A Brief History On June 23, 1611, the ship appropriately named Discovery, captained by explorer Henry Hudson, was in what is now called Hudson Bay and was the scene of a mutiny. Hudson, his son and 7 loyal men of the crew were set into a small open boat and cast off by the angry mutineers. Captain and loyal followers were never seen again, victims of a deadly voyage during the Age of Discovery. Back in the day, 4 or 5 centuries ago, when brave explorers were sailing what today seem like tiny ships all over a strange world, finding…
A Brief History On June 22, 1893, the British battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally collided with the British battleship HMS Victoria off the coast of Lebanon. Digging Deeper Victoria was the flagship of the British Mediterranean fleet, the most powerful fleet in that sea and as such carried Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon. These 2 ships were 2 of the most powerful ships in the world, launched in 1885 and 1887 respectively. They were engaged in maneuvers and using the tactics of using an absolute minimum amount of signaling between ships. Remember, back then there was no radio, so ships used signal flags, semaphore or blinking…
A Brief History My home state of Ohio has a surprising history. This article presents a chronology of some of the key events! Digging Deeper On April 4, 1841, a stunned nation learned that for the first time in American history a serving president died while in office! On January 7, 1894, Ohio born uber-inventor Thomas Edison made and demonstrated a kinetoscope, a sort of device using multiple photos or drawings to show the illusion of movement, in this case of a man sneezing. On August 3, 1900, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded in Akron, Ohio, joining Goodyear Tire and Rubber in Akron…
A Brief History On June 22, 1969, the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland, Ohio caught fire, sparking a story in Time Magazine and becoming the symbol for the ecology movement. Nature and mankind have worked separately or together throughout history to create environmental disasters. Here we list 10 of the more spectacular ones, the order of which is the ones we find most entertaining. Digging Deeper 10. Leaded Fuel, 1920’s-1970’s. Discovered to be an effective anti-knock compound for gasoline by Charles Kettering and Tom Midgely in 1921, the compound tetraethyl lead made by Dupont was necessary for engines to operate at higher compression, thus…