Browsing: Lifestyle

A Brief History On July 3, 1996, Prime Minister John Major of the United Kingdom made an announcement most Scots would find long overdue.  Major announced that the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland after being held in England since 1296. Digging Deeper Not to be confused with the delicious breakfast pastry, the stone gets its name from Scone Abbey in Scone, Scotland, where the red sandstone block once resided.  A sacred relic, the stone has been used in the coronation ceremonies of Scottish, English, and British monarchs.  It has a cross carved on it and metal rings…

A Brief History On July 2, 1990, 1,426 faithful Muslims attending the annual pilgrimage to Mecca called the “Hajj,” were trampled and suffocated to death in a tunnel.  Sadly, the Hajj is no stranger to such disasters, although not necessarily on this scale. Digging Deeper The incident happened as several people fell off a pedestrian bridge over a huge column of other faithful passing through the 550 meter long tunnel.  When the crowd below had people land on them, a rush followed causing constriction of the crowd in the tunnel, resulting in trampling and suffocation.  The tunnel, designed for only…

A Brief History On June 29, 1971, the first human space travelers to die while in space perished when their Soyuz 11 space capsule depressurized after leaving the Soviet space station, Salyut 1. Digging Deeper Salyut 1 was the first space station launched into orbit around the Earth in April of 1971, and despite its then groundbreaking technology, only lasted less than 6 months, of which humans occupied it for a total of 24 days. Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev had become the first ever spacemen to occupy a space station, from June 7th to June…

A Brief History On June 25, 1997, an unmanned Russian spacecraft called Progress-M blundered into the Russian manned Mir space station.  Despite considerable damage, no lives were lost, and the space station continued its mission. Digging Deeper Launched in 1986, Mir was a Soviet space venture that was built up through 1996, and eventually abandoned and burned up on reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere in 2001.  Manned by a crew of 3, Mir was the largest human built satellite of the Earth until the International Space Station was built starting in 1998.  Holding space records eventually beaten by the ISS,…

A Brief History On June 23, 2023, Americans celebrate National Detroit Style Pizza Day, a day to honor perhaps America’s favorite food in a unique style. Digging Deeper While most are familiar with “New York Style” and “Chicago Style” pizza, the variety invented by Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit, Michigan back in 1946 is a major player in gustatory wars that define pizza. Detroit Style is different, starting with its square shape, baked with a thick, airy crust in a square pan, spread with plenty of Wisconsin Brick Cheese all the way to the ends, covered with “racing stripes” of pizza…