Browsing: Lists

A Brief History On August 2, 1916, Austrian saboteurs managed to sink the Italian battleship, Leonardo da Vinci as the great ship lay in Taranto harbor.  Was the magazine explosion an accident, or did the Austrians use some sort of novel booby trap to sink the mighty vessel?  Either way, World War I, like other wars, saw the imagination of arms designers and military engineers run wild.  Here we list 10 of the weird weapons or contraptions dreamed up to help one side or the other win the war.  What items would you add to the list?  (See our follow on article,…

A Brief History On Thursday, August 1st, 1991, actress Hedy Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting.  Hedy’s life and accomplishments were presented in Part 1 of our series on German-speaking women in English-speaking roles. In this article, we present the next group of German actresses. Digging Deeper Part 2: The Post-War Years 1) Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) During World War II, Hildegard Knef, a young aspiring actress, had an affair with Ewald von Demandowsky who was the head of a film production company responsible for making many Nazi propaganda movies. In the final year of the war and to be able to stay…

A Brief History On August 1, 2007, the Interstate -35 westbound bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis came tumbling down during the evening rush hour, killing 13 and injuring 145.  The incident brought the crumbling infrastructure of the US to the front of the news, but as usual, little if anything was done about it.  Bridges have been falling as long as men have built them.  The sorry state of repair and maintenance of American bridges means more deadly failures are likely to occur, sooner rather than later.  Here we list 10 notable bridge failures, not necessarily the deadliest…

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.  This episode was the last day the Royal Navy would follow the long tradition of supplying a daily drink of rum to their sailors.  Many military and civilian traditions have fallen by the wayside, some with good riddance, some longingly missed.  Many of these traditions were written down as official policy, and others were just things people usually did.  Some ended with a clear cut finale, and others faded away.  Here we list 10 of…

A Brief History On July 30, 1864, Union forces exploded 8,000 pounds of black powder in a tunnel underneath Confederate trenches at Petersburg, Virginia, creating a crater 170 feet long and 120 feet wide, and 30 feet deep.  The unorganized rush of Union troops into the crater resulted in Union failure, with Federal troops suffering well over double the casualties inflicted on the Confederate troops.  The Battle of the Crater as this action was called is an example of an unconventional military idea that did not work.  Back on May 15, 2014 History and Headlines featured a list of 10 Weapons and Weapons…