A Brief History On May 29, 1935, the brainchild of Willy Messerschmitt, the Bf-109, made its first flight. The most produced fighter of all time, the Germans built 33,984 of them, while Czechoslovakia and Spain also built a few hundred more until 1958. The main German fighter of the pre-war period and early in the war, it was to be superseded by the more modern and more heavily armed FW-190, but the ease of manufacture and maintenance kept the Bf-109 in production during the entire war. Constantly updated and refined, the aging airframe remained competitive with allied fighters throughout the…
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A Brief History On May 26, 1908, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made when the Masjed Soleyman strike was made in Southwest Persia, the country now known as Iran. The fact that the Middle East is so rich in petroleum oil resources has been an overwhelming factor in the history of the 20th and 21st Centuries and will continue to be of monumental importance until such time as human civilization drastically reduces its dependence on fossil fuels. Today we look at 10 of the dates in the 20th Century when events of great importance…
A Brief History On May 23, 2013, the Interstate-5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed suddenly, dumping two occupied cars into the river. Incredibly, not only did the occupants survive, they did not suffer any severe injuries. Often the results are much different and much more tragic. Today we discuss some of the famous bridge collapses through History, with an eye toward ones that are particularly deadly, interesting, or unique. (See our previous article on August 1, 2007, “10 Famous Bridge Collapses.”) Digging Deeper 1. I-5 Bridge over the Skagit River, 2013. As stated above, this harrowing incident that dumped…
A Brief History On May 2, 1918, General Motors Corporation acquired the Delaware based Chevrolet Motor Company, its last major car company acquisition for decades. GM would grow to be the largest car manufacturer in the world from 1931 to 2007, a 77 year reign as king of the automakers no other company has matched. In recent years GM vies with Toyota and Volkswagen for the championship auto manufacturer title, with strong competition from Ford Motor Company, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, and Fiat-Chrysler (which also makes Jeep and Dodge among its nameplates). GM sells about 8 to 10 million cars per year world-wide,…
A Brief History On April 29, 1945, the British Royal Air Force aided by units of the Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, and Polish Air Forces began Operation Manna over the occupied part of the Netherlands (Holland) with the acquiescence of the German occupiers. The United States Army Air Forces started their own, similar, operation 2 days later called Operation Chowhound. As you may guess from the code names given the operations, the military action was feeding the starving civilian population of occupied Netherlands, dropping food from bomber aircraft. Digging Deeper In all, more than 11,0000 tons of food were dropped…