A Brief History On June 22, 1918, a passenger train carrying US military troops plowed into the rear end of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train that had stopped on the tracks for repairs. Sadly, 86 of the over 250 circus people died and 127 were injured, making the Hammond Circus Train Wreck one of the worst in US railroad history. Digging Deeper The name of the wreck derives from the location, near Hammond, Indiana. The driver of the troop train had fallen asleep and missed at least two warnings about the stopped train ahead. Luckily, the relatively fragile wooden circus cars…
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A Brief History On June 18, 2023, we celebrate National Turkey Lovers’ Day, and yes, we too love Turkey! Americans are accustomed to having Turkey on Thanksgiving, and often on other holidays when a feast is the order of the day, but Turkey is great any time, whether it is deep fried, roasted, baked, fricasseed, made into lunch meat, breakfast sausage, hot dogs, ground meat or whatever! Digging Deeper A native bird of North America, the Turkey has gone from a wily and tough wild customer dating back 20 million years, to our more familiar domesticated variety that the President…
A Brief History On June 15, 1858, Chancellor of the Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli called the Thames River in London, England, a “Stygian pool, reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors.” The growth of London as a major industrial giant had turned the river into an open sewer that became so foul the Queen and Prince Consort were forced off the waters and Parliament could not conduct business due to the stench! Digging Deeper The summer of 1858 was a hot one, with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, grossly aggravating the stench from a river that took in human and industrial waste…
A Brief History On June 11, 980, Vladimir the Great was proclaimed the ruler of all Kievan Rus’, having consolidated an empire consisting of the lands from what is now Ukraine in the East to the Baltic Sea in the West, the White Sea in the North, and to the Black Sea in the South. Digging Deeper Called the Kievan Realm, the people comprising this vast country included what are now Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Nordic, and Finnic people along with other Slavic people. As the name implies, the capital of these people was located in Kyiv. Vladimir, bearing the titles…
A Brief History On June 9, 1973, Secretariat, often called “Big Red,” won the final round of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, by an unprecedented and unequaled 31 lengths! In fact, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont all in record times that still stand 50 years later! Digging Deeper Secretariat was a big, strong horse, 16 ¾ hands high and weighing in at 1155 pounds. With a stride of 24 feet 11 inches, he could cover ground at a top speed of 49 miles per hour carrying a jockey, even faster if unburdened. His…