Browsing: March 1

A Brief History On March 1, 1954, the US conducted its highest yield nuclear weapon test ever, the Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll, a blast of 15 megatons, which created the largest ever radioactive contamination event in US history, mainly due to the atomized coral spread for miles spiked with lithium-7. Digging Deeper The Castle Bravo test gives us a pair of major trivia facts, while some other perhaps more fascinating trivia items include: Names, especially name changes and bizarre names, including Frank Zappa naming his kids Moon Unit and Dweezil.  His other children had to settle for Ahmet…

A Brief History On March 1, 1939, the land version of an “Oops moment” happened at Hirakata, Osaka, when a Japanese Army ammunition dump exploded, killing 94 workers and soldiers. Digging Deeper Military operations are dangerous even when not in combat, with a variety of accidents that can cost lives, and dealing with high explosive munitions has caused major explosive accidents throughout military history.  Some of these events include: The Delft, Holland explosion of a gunpowder storehouse in 1654 that leveled the city and killed over 100 Dutch citizens. The Birgu, Malta explosion of a gunpowder warehouse in 1806 that…

A Brief History On March 1, 2024, American sci-fi movie fans will be treated to the opening of the latest of the movies based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune.  After the highly successful Denis Villeneuve 2021 reboot of the Dune story, the 2024 film, Dune: Part Two, is a sequel also brought to us by Villeneuve and with the same main cast. Digging Deeper Casting is indeed great, with Timothée Chalamet returning as the main character, Paul, and his frenemy/love interest Chani played by Zendaya. The all-star cast includes Christopher Walken, David Bautista, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson,…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on March 1st.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On March 1, 1790, the first census in the history of the United States was authorized, with some interesting results. On March 1, 1805, the United States government was reeling from a never to be repeated political power play! On March 1, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, returned to France from exile on the island of Elba to reclaim his…

A Brief History On March 1, 1917, one of the most provocative diplomatic messages known to history was disseminated in the American press, the so-called Zimmerman Telegram, sent by Germany to Mexico in January of 1917 and intercepted by the British who dutifully relayed the shocking message to American President Woodrow Wilson.  An aghast and angry Wilson wanted to release the contents of the message to the world and the American people immediately but held the news until March 1, 1917.  An outraged American public learned of German designs on the American mainland and the telegram was largely responsible for…