A Brief History On May 30, 1914, the British ocean liner RMS Aquitania made her maiden voyage. Larger than the Titanic, this giant was known as “Ship Beautiful” for self-descriptive reasons. Serving in both World Wars, she was the last of the great 4-funnel (as smokestacks were called) liners and was the longest serving liner in history until surpassed by the Queen Elizabeth II. Obviously famous in her day, the Aquitania is not well remembered, unlike the other 10 ships we list here whose fame has stood the test of time. Apologies to the HMS Victory, the USS Arizona, the USS Missouri, the USS…
Browsing: Vehicles
A Brief History On November 2, 1947, eccentric airplane designer Howard Hughes performed the maiden and only flight of his Spruce Goose (also known as the H-4 The Hercules), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. Digging Deeper Howard Hughes was a veritable renaissance man. The businessman dabbled in everything from film making to flying. One of the wealthiest men of his day, he had a net worth of $1.5 billion at the time of his death. A man of such wealth and such diverse interests is not surprisingly going to sometimes use that wealth for attempting to make his most…
A Brief History On October 21, 1944, Japan began their notorious kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, first striking HMAS Australia. Digging Deeper By 1944, World War II in the Pacific Theater had been raging for several years. While the European War is traditionally dated to have begun in 1939, the Pacific Theater arguably began two years earlier with Japan’s invasion of China. Thus, Japan had been fighting against myriad enemies for nearly seven years by the autumn of 1944. During those seven years, Japan had rapidly established an impressive colonial empire that at its height seemed to…
A Brief History On October 15, 1863, The H. L. Hunley, a Confederate (the South!) submarine, sank during a test, killing its inventor and namesake, Horace L. Hunley. Digging Deeper The Hunley was NOT the first submarine ever invented and certainly not the first one ever used for military purposes. The first military submersible was most likely the Turtle invented by David Bushnell in 1775 for use in the American Revolutionary War. Robert Fulton, another American inventor, invented the leaky Nautilus in 1800 and thus tried unsuccessfully to entice First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte of France to make use of the…
