Browsing: Lists

A Brief History On September 20, 1893, Charles Duryea and his brother, J. Frank Duryea, tested their gasoline powered automobile, the first gasoline powered car in the United States.  Since that historic day, Americans have been building and buying cars and other motor vehicles like no other country on Earth.  Here today we list 10 Amazing Facts About American Cars, their history of manufacture, sales, performance and the like. Digging Deeper 1. First Ever Automobile, 1885-1886. Karl Benz of Germany came out with his Benz-Patent-Motorwagen a whopping 7 years before the Duryeas made the first American gasoline powered auto.  Benz used…

A Brief History On September 18, 1997, Atlanta billionaire Ted Turner (aka, Mr. Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001) donated a massive one billion dollars to the United Nations.  His donation was used to create the United Nations Foundation, of which Turner serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors.  Having become super wealthy through his media businesses, including a billboard and advertising business, CNN (the first 24/7 cable news network) and television station WTBS, a cable pioneering giant “super-station.”  His 2017 net worth is estimated at $23 billion, so he could afford such an enormous gift.  We list 10…

A Brief History On September 17, 1939, only a couple weeks after World War II in Europe began, the German U-boat, U-29, sunk the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous with two of the three torpedoes fired striking the unlucky carrier.  Courageous sank with 519 of her crew going down, becoming the first aircraft carrier ever sunk by a submarine.  Here we list all the aircraft carriers ever sunk in combat by submarines, a dangerous prey as carriers are inevitably well protected by escorting ships.  Note that no aircraft carrier has been sunk in combat from any source since the end…

A Brief History On September 16, 1961, Hurricane Esther became the target of the United States National Research Project to drop Silver Iodide into an active hurricane in an attempt to reduce the magnitude of the storm.  When eight cylinders were dropped into the eyewall of the storm near Puerto Rico, a 10% drop in windspeed was noted, giving rise to Project Stormfury. (The dropping of Silver Iodide crystals was tried from 1962 to 1983 until ended because it really did not work.)  Today in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, we will tell you at least 10…

A Brief History On September 15, 1966, in a reaction to the “Texas Sniper” mass shooting at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson addressed Congress and asked for the passage of what became the Gun Control Act of 1968, a legislative measure that in no way, shape, or form, could have prevented the Texas Sniper incident, and for that matter, probably any other illegal shooting.  Here we list 10 extraordinarily stupid things said or done in the name of “gun control.”  (Note: The list of erroneous or downright idiotic things anti-gunners say about guns and…