A Brief History On May 27, 1975, a bus carrying 45 elderly women crashed in North Yorkshire, England at Dibble’s Bridge, resulting in the driver and 32 passengers killed and the other 13 occupants injured. The accident was the worst motor vehicle accident in British history by number of fatalities. Digging Deeper The bus, called a coach in England, was a 1967 Bedford VAM5 taking the ladies on a day trip. The driver was a substitute, and apparently the recently changed brakes had an issue that resulted in the bus being unable to slow down going downhill, causing the vehicle…
Browsing: May 27
Read More
A Brief History On March 27, 1998, the FDA approved Viagra, a medication to treat erectile dysfunction. Along with a host of possible negative side effects, Viagra is now often used recreationally to enhance sexual performance by men and women, by athletes who believe the drug enhances athletic performance, and by illegal drug dealers that adulterate other drugs with Viagra. Digging Deeper Endorsement ads by former Senator and Republican Presidential nominee Bob Dole and soccer legend Pele helped launch the product, and today counterfeit Viagra is readily available, although often with dangerous ingredients such as rat poison! Some other controversial…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on May 27th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On May 27, 1703, Czar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg, Russia. On May 27, 1907, in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the city by the bay came down with an epidemic of Bubonic Plague, the same plague responsible for the infamous “Black Death” in earlier centuries. On May 27, 1958, the McDonnell Aircraft (later McDonnell Douglas) F-4 Phantom…
A Brief History On May 27, 1996, President Boris Yeltsin of Russia met with Chechen rebels to negotiate a cease fire in what is known as The First Chechen War. The Chechen Republic is an almost autonomous region within the Russian Federation, which fought a war for independence from December of 1994 to August of 1996. Digging Deeper The Chechen people lost as many as 14,000 fighters killed in the war, and another 80,000 to 100,000 civilians slain. The Russians lost about 3,000 to 5,000 killed. A second Chechen War was fought from 1999 to 2009. Chechnya is part of…
A Brief History On May 27, 1962, a landfill above a coal mine in Centralia, Pennsylvania caught on fire probably due to someone intentionally burning trash. The landfill located right above a seam in a former strip mine ignited the coal seam which led to an underground fire that has been burning ever since. Digging Deeper Incredibly, authorities have never been able to extinguish the flames, and the abandoned mine continued to burn, making most of the town of Centralia above the mine uninhabitable. With a population of 1400 in 1962, the ghost town boasted only 7 residents by 2013.…
