Browsing: Lil’ History Chips

A Brief History Because the Northeast blackout of August 14–16, 2003 came only two years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the first thought in the minds of many people was that a terrorist attack had occurred.  Of course, the US government quickly reassured the public that no such attack had taken place, even though they did not have an answer as to why the outage occurred. Digging Deeper The problem turned out to be a software bug in the portion of the electrical grid controlled by FirstEnergy, an Akron, Ohio based electrical utility.  Tree branches contacting power…

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A Brief History On July 31, 1970, the British Royal Navy experienced one of the darkest days in their long and glorious history, Black Tot Day.  On that day, the RN ended its long tradition of giving each sailor at sea a drink of rum. Digging Deeper While you may not personally miss this bygone practice, we ask, “What do you miss the most?” Some possible answers could be: (for Catholics) The Latin Mass School Dress and Grooming Codes Drive-in Movies Decent Meals and Service on Airliners Polaroid Cameras Phone Booths The Milkman Vinyl Records Sears Catalog Cheap Gasoline Hot…

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A Brief History On July 17, 1917, King George V of the United Kingdom changed the British royal family’s name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the more English-sounding Windsor. Digging Deeper A blatantly political move, changing the German name was done under pressure from a war-weary nation that had been fighting  in what at the time had been the biggest and costliest war in human history.  England had even been bombed by German bomber aircraft named Gotha, causing that much more resentment. As a cousin of both Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, King George knew the incestuous nature…

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A Brief History On May 4, 1959, the first ever Grammy music awards were held, with no category for rock and roll despite the fact that this new type of music had already long taken the country by storm.  Digging Deeper The big winners with 2 Grammys apiece were: Ella Fitzgerald (Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female and Best Jazz Performance by an Individual, for compilations of the Irving Berlin songbook and the Duke Ellington songbook, respectively); Henri Mancini (Best Arrangement and Album of the Year, both for The Music from Peter Gunn); Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., better known by his stage persona…

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A Brief History On April 4, 1964, the Beatles, also known as “the Fab Four” or “the Mop Tops,” dominated the Billboard Hot 100 chart with songs in each of the top 5 positions!   This incredible display of rock music domination is a feat that had never matched before or even since for that matter.   Defying all precedence, the band also had an additional 7 hits in lower positions on the chart for a total of 12 top 100 hits at one time!  Not even Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll himself, ever achieved this accomplishment. Digging Deeper The…

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