A Brief History On April 4, 1991, US Senator from Pennsylvania John Heinz along with six other people died when a helicopter suffered a mid-air collision with the small airplane carrying Heinz over Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. Sadly, two of the seven fatalities were children on the ground. Digging Deeper Heinz is only one of many politicians that met an early demise in aircraft crashes, such as the following examples. In 1928, Congressman Thaddeus Sweet of New York became the first US politician to die in an air wreck. In 1947 and again in 1962, State Governors died in air…
Browsing: Travel
Read More
A Brief History On February 3, 1972, Iran suffered what the Guinness Book of World Records called “the deadliest blizzard in history,” an event known as “The Iran blizzard of February 1972.” Sadly, an estimated 4,000 or more people died in the extreme weather event. Digging Deeper We have almost all experienced the struggles of dealing with extreme snowfall, getting our cars stuck in the snow or sliding all over the road. Trying to drive in a blinding snowstorm is terrifying and dangerous, and people have died just trying to shovel snow from their drives and walks. Some areas of…
A Brief History On January 26, 1959, the California State Lands Commission posted Chain Island, a 41 acre island in Suisun Bay where the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River meet, for sale with a minimum acceptable bid of $5,226. Digging Deeper An island made much larger than naturally occurring by the dumping of tailings from hydraulic mining up the rivers over the years, California had long intended to “remove” the island by hauling away the dirt and rocks, for use as a source of possible mineral recovery. Alas, removal never happened, and the island sat there in the way…
A Brief History On January 15, 2022, the Kingdom of Tonga, part of the Tongan archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, experienced the spectacular climax of a volcanic eruption that started a couple weeks prior. Digging Deeper The volcanic mountain involved bears the tongue twisting name “Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai,” a name we believe may be the niftiest name of any mountain we know. Unfortunately, the eruption triggered several tsunamis around the Southwest Pacific, affecting some islands and leaving seven people dead, 19 people injured, and over $180 million in damages. Some of the other mountains that bear beautiful, unusual, tongue twisting,…
A Brief History On January 13, 1964, a 14-year-old Pamela Mason was murdered in New Hampshire, her alleged murderer later having his conviction overturned on the basis of 4th Amendment rights regarding police searches in a Supreme Court case called Coolidge v. New Hampshire in 1971. Digging Deeper The murder conviction was overturned over the concept of when and when not the police are allowed to search a person’s car, truck, or other vehicle. The times it is perfectly legal for the cops to search your car starts with a properly issued search warrant, signed by an unbiased authority. Thus,…