A Brief History On September 10, 2008, The Large Hadron Collider was powered up for the first time. Claimed to be the largest scientific experiment ever, the test site consists of a tunnel 17 miles in circumference for the purpose of accelerating and colliding sub-atomic and atomic particles. Digging Deeper Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, in Switzerland, the project was the culmination of work by over 10,000 scientists from 100 countries, a truly massive project. Built between 1998 and 2008, the machine cost over $9 billion and has worked at an energy level…
Browsing: Science & Technology
Read More
A Brief History On September 6, 1939, the Battle of Barking Creek in the skies over England became an historic event for Britain’s RAF, the first loss of an RAF fighter plane and fighter pilot during World War II. Unfortunately, this “combat” was a mistake, as radar operators misidentified the blips on their screen as enemy aircraft when in fact those menacing blips flying toward the English coast were actually RAF Hurricane fighters. Digging Deeper Spitfire fighters scrambled to intercept the supposed enemy and promptly shot down a pair of the incoming Hurricanes, killing one of the unfortunate pilots. Such…
A Brief History On September 6, 1997, two to two and a half billion people worldwide were glued to their TV sets watching the funeral of Princess Diana, a similar number of TV viewers that watched the 2009 funeral of pop rocker Michael Jackson. Digging Deeper Did you realize funerals were much bigger television events than Super Bowls? In fact, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK ranks Number 1 on the list of most watched TV events with a staggering 5.1 billion viewers worldwide! The opening ceremonies of the 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympics drew 3.6 and…
A Brief History On September 5, 1970, German race car driver Karl Jochen Rindt was killed in a practice lap accident for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix event at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy. Despite succumbing to his injuries, he became the first driver to be posthumously awarded the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship after piling up enough wins to secure the championship. Digging Deeper Despite being born in Germany, Rindt competed as an Austrian. The 1970 win was his only Formula One World Drivers’ Championship season, though he also won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in…
A Brief History On September 3, 1967, Sweden corrected a long-standing mistake by switching from driving on the left, as they do in Britain, Australia, Japan, India, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, Bhutan, Suriname, Mozambique, and some other confused places. Digging Deeper All European countries except the islands listed above drive on the right, like the US, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the civilized world. Just to keep things confusing, some countries such as China and even the US have places where driving is on the left whereas the rest of the country drives on the right! While…