A Brief History On June 28, 1926, Mercedes-Benz, a company known for quality and luxury in automobiles, formed by merging companies founded by German engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Digging Deeper Benz pioneered auto making, and his 1885 effort is considered the first practical production auto. Daimler followed with his car the next year. While Mercedes-Benz has a long history of fame for quality and reliability, in 2023, the firm’s cars came in a dismal 29th out of 30 car makers for reliability according to Consumer Reports. Fellow Teutonic car makers also did not lead the pack, with Mini…
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A Brief History On May 14, 1900, the athletic competition known as “the World Amateur championship” opened at the Paris Exposition Universelle, a World’s Fair held in Paris from April to November of 1900, one of several French hosted Expositions Universelle over the years. Digging Deeper The events variously known as “world’s fair,” “global exposition,” or “universal exposition,” are major events often hosted by a major city or a country to celebrate all the latest in technology and innovations, a phenomenon first hosted by Bohemia in Prague back in 1791. There have been at least 37 general expositions that could…
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…
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…