Browsing: Travel

A Brief History On August 17, 1978, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman made ballooning history by becoming the first to pilot a manned balloon across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Maine to France in the Double Eagle II, a Helium balloon.  Today, we take a look at a few momentous balloon flights. Digging Deeper On November 21, 1783, the first ever manned balloon flight took place in France, when Francois Pilatrê de Rozier and Francois Laurent took flight in a hot air balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers.  In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries made history…

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A Brief History On August 8, 2004, Chicago’s Little Lady, a tour boat carrying 120 passengers, was bombed by a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band.  About 2/3 of the passengers were soaked with human waste dumped from the bus as it crossed the Kinzie Street bridge over the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois. Digging Deeper Only the driver was aboard the bus and he decided to dump the waste from the toilets into the Chicago River as he crossed the bridge, the bridge made of open metal grates, and the driver claims he had no idea the…

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A Brief History On August 2, 1870, the Tower Subway opened for passenger traffic in London, England, the first ever underground tube type railway commonly called a “subway” in the US and “the tube” in the UK. Digging Deeper Not to be confused with a fast food store, a subway is a rail train for carrying passengers in underground tunnels.   Using coal or wood powered steam engines, or even gasoline or diesel engines to power the train would be problematic underground.  The Tower Subway was propelled by a cable system with no onboard propulsive power. Most subways today are electric…

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A Brief History On August 1, 1977, former USAF and CIA pilot, Francis Gary Powers, died when his news helicopter crashed in Encino, California.  Powers became famous worldwide when his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, causing a scandal and sensation during the Cold War.  Other pilots have achieved high levels of fame, and today we ask, “Which pilot is the most famous?” Digging Deeper Some nominees include: Orville Wright, the first powered flight in 1903. Manfred von Richthofen, aka, The Red Baron, leading World War I (WWI) fighter Ace, serving in the Luftstreitkräfte…

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A Brief History On July 26, 2005, Mumbai, India, received an incredible 39.17 inches of rain in a 24 hour period.  Mumbai is the most populous city in what is now the most populous country in the world, with 12.5 million inhabitants.  Obviously, such an enormous amount of rain created massive flooding, and sadly about 1100 people died in the floods. Digging Deeper To put this enormous amount of rain in perspective, Cleveland, Ohio, a typical US city, has a record 24 hour rainfall of just 4.59 inches on September 7, 1996.  The contiguous states US record for a single…

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