A Brief History On May 21, 2005, Six Flags Great Adventure became home to the tallest roller coaster in the world. Called Kingda Ka, the 456 foot tall steel ride eclipsed Ohio’s Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster for the height crown, and boasted a top speed of 128 miles per hour to boot! Digging Deeper The world of roller coasters is not stagnant, and the title of the fastest coaster today is held by Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi, with a top speed of 149 MPH! At 1.29 miles, Formula Rossa is the second longest coaster, beaten by Steel Dragon’s…
Browsing: Travel
A Brief History On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off on his non-stop, solo trans-Atlantic flight, a flight into aviation history. Five years later, in 1932, Amelia Earhart took off on her flight as the first female pilot to fly non-stop solo across the Atlantic. Digging Deeper Numerous great aviation milestones have been achieved, including around the world flights, solar powered flights, altitude and speed records, and other great feats of aviation skill and technology. We wonder what the next great aviation milestones are going to be, or even should be, and we nominate a few of those here:…
A Brief History On May 19, 1959, the North Vietnamese Army formed Group 559 and gave the group the job of establishing a reliable supply route for NVA and Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam. The result became the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads and footpaths used by the communist North to funnel people and supplies to the South, via Laos and Cambodia. Digging Deeper Called by the American spy group the NSA “one of the great achievements of military engineering of the 20th century,” the Ho Chi Minh trail was a constant target of US bombing…
A Brief History On May 15, 2010, Australian 16 year old Jessica Watson completed a non-stop and solo unassisted sail voyage around the world, the youngest person to achieve this feat. Digging Deeper Watson piloted a 33.6 foot sailboat on her trip of seven months that covered nearly 20,000 nautical miles. She is just one of many people that achieved great feats before turning 18 years old, some of whom include: American Marjorie Gestring became the youngest Olympic Gold Medalist in 1936 when she won the 3-meter diving event at the age of 13. Eight Olympic champions have been age…
A Brief History On May 1, 1978, Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura made history as the first person to reach the North Pole all alone. Using a dog sled, Uemura barely made the 57 day trek alive, as he had been raided by a Polar Bear that ate much of his provisions! An intrepid adventurer, Uemura shot the bear dead when it returned the next day. Digging Deeper Uemura was also the first person to raft the Amazon River alone and the first to make a solo ascent of Denali in 1970. Always looking to best his own efforts, he disappeared…