A Brief History On May 17, 1995, San Diego, California was the scene of one of the oddest and perhaps the scariest police chase of a stolen vehicle in the annals of motor vehicle theft. Shawn Timothy Nelson, a 35 year old US Army veteran stole a National Guard M-60A3 tank, a 63 ton metal monster boasting a 105mm main gun, two machine guns, a 750 horsepower engine, and as much as 10 inch thick armor. Digging Deeper Nelson’s time in the Army was marred by his “‘multifaceted’ disciplinary problems” which resulted in his discharge. He became a plumber but…
Browsing: Vehicles
A Brief History On May 15, 2001, a 47-car freight train in Walbridge, Ohio took off away from the train station sans engineer who had dismounted to set a switch. The train, which included tanker cars carrying hazardous flammable chemicals, traveled an incredible 66 miles before finally being stopped in Kenton, Ohio. Digging Deeper In the face of recent train derailments and disasters, this particular incident could have been much worse. In this case, no crash occurred, and nobody was killed, due to the quick thinking and courage of rail crews. The engineer did suffer minor injuries in his vain…
A Brief History On May 13, 2023, Americans can celebrate the annual National Train Day, a day invented by Amtrak back in 2008, but cancelled for 2016 due to budget cuts! Digging Deeper Have you heard of any other “National” Days that have been eliminated? Trains have had it rough in recent decades and even in recent weeks. On February 3, 2023, a train carrying tanker cars of Vinyl Chloride derailed at East Palestine, Ohio and created an environmental disaster and political controversy. Trains helped build the United States and much of the world, with a peak of railroad employees…
A Brief History On May 12, 1965, the Soviet space craft, Luna 5, an unmanned spaceship designed to become the first ever Earth launched craft to make a controlled landing on the surface of the Moon, instead crashed when its retro-rockets failed to ignite. Digging Deeper Soviet space agency attempts to land a spacecraft on the Moon had previously failed, both at launch and at landing. After US President John F. Kennedy had boldly claimed the US would land a man on the Moon and safely return him to Earth before the decade was over, the US and the USSR…
A Brief History On May 4, 2019, the W Series conducted their first and inaugural motor race at Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, Germany, an all-Female auto racing event. Digging Deeper That initial race was won by Jamie Chadwick, a British race car driver, who went on to win that first season W Series Championship. Chadwick still drives competitively in the Indy NXT series for the Andretti Autosport team and is a major female example of top-notch drivers such as Danica Patrick, Shirley Muldowney, Janet Guthrie, Simona de Silvestro, Michèle Mouton, and Maria Teresa de Filippis. Apologies to the many great female drivers…
