A Brief History On May 10, 1865, President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, was captured by Federal troops in Georgia. Many Americans in the North consider Jeff Davis to be the worst kind of traitor, while many Americans in the old Confederacy drive around with bumper stickers that read “My President is Jeff Davis.” Whether someone is a freedom fighter or a traitor is relative depending on the perspective of the observer, which is why JD does not make the list. Others have been accused and even executed as traitors, such as Mata Hari, who turned out…
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A Brief History On May 10, 1972, the mighty Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka, ‘Warthog’) made its first flight. Designed from the start to stem the tide of the Red Army’s potential invasion of Western Europe, the A-10 was built to do 2 things: Destroy enemy armor formations and survive battle damage. Digging Deeper Not designed to fly fast, high, look good or carry sophisticated systems, the A-10 is built with mass quantities of armor protecting the pilot (a titanium “bathtub” surrounds him) and the airplane’s systems. The twin jet engines are located aft and above the fuselage away…
A Brief History On May 9, 1926, Richard E. Byrd claimed to have made a flight over the North Pole, making him (the navigator) and his pilot the first men to have achieved that distinction. Doubters surfaced soon afterwards, and the 1996 release of Byrd’s diary clearly showed how he had falsified data to claim he had made the trip when in reality he had turned back without achieving his goal. People lie. Not all the time, but often enough and about big enough subjects that we have compiled a list of 10 big whoppers for you. Digging Deeper 10.…
A Brief History On May 9, 1961, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, shocked Americans by declaring commercial television programming to be a “vast wasteland.” And you thought TV today was lousy! Digging Deeper Appointed as Chairman of the FCC by President Kennedy, Newton was giving his first speech in office to the National Association of Broadcasters, not exactly the audience likely to agree with him. Minow went on to rail against all the game shows, slapstick comedies, phony portrayals of family life and the violence, which though tame by our modern standards, must have been shocking…
A Brief History On May 9, 1980, in a scene out of horror movie the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a support pier of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that spanned 4.1 miles across Tampa Bay in Florida. Digging Deeper The bridge roadway soared 165 feet above the water built in 1954. In 1971 a parallel span was built to carry southbound traffic only and the older span became northbound only. In a heavy thunderstorm that reduced visibility to near zero, the 580 foot long 19,000 ton Summit Venture bulk carrier blundered into a support pier in the middle of…