Browsing: Science & Technology

A Brief History On March 19, 1965, a diver and soon to become underwater archaeologist discovered the wreck of the SS Georgiana, a Confederate States of America cruiser sunk in Charleston Harbor in 1863.  Built in Scotland, the Georgiana was on her maiden voyage to Charleston when she encountered Union blockade vessels and was heavily damaged.  The cruiser was scuttled to avoid capture, her cargo worth about $50 million, including 350 pounds of gold. Digging Deeper Perhaps the most powerful cruiser in the Confederate Navy, the actual purpose of the Georgiana is unknown.  The 205 foot long, 25 foot wide…

A Brief History On March 18, 1934, a photograph taken by astronomer par excellence Edwin Hubble showed that there were more galaxies of stars in the observable Universe than there were stars (100 billion!) in the Milky Way Galaxy. Digging Deeper The Milky Way Galaxy is a group of stars and associated planets and other material that the Earth and our Solar System are part of.  As late as the early part of the 20th Century astronomers believed the Milky Way Galaxy was the Universe, until Hubble proved that other galaxies were considerably farther away than the limits of the…

A Brief History On March 15 and 16, 1952, over a 24 hour period the most rain ever recorded in a 24 hour period fell on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, on the area known as Cilaos.  An unbelievable 73 inches of the wet stuff fell on Cilaos,  a commune first settled by escaped Malagasy slaves known as “Black-Browns.” Digging Deeper Apparently slaves in that area of the world were referred to as “Browns,” and runaway slaves (I prefer the term, escaped slaves) were called “Black-Browns.”  Believing themselves safe on the highest ground of the island, these people were…

A Brief History On March 14, 1945, a British Lancaster heavy bomber dropped a bomb known as the “Grand Slam,” a 22,000 lb behemoth that was the largest and most powerful bomb ever used up to that time. For years, only a nuclear bomb would be more powerful. Digging Deeper British weapons designer extraordinaire, Barnes Wallis, designed numerous ingenious weapons, including the “Tall Boy” bomb, a 12,000 pound monster “earthquake” bomb that was used to attack hardened targets such a submarine pens and the German battleship Tirpitz (which was finally sunk with Tall Boys). Wallis also designed the “bouncing bomb”…

A Brief History On March 13, 1997, the skies over Arizona from the Nevada state line through Phoenix and on to Tuscon, a 300 mile stretch, were lit by a series of lights that fascinated and baffled thousands of witnesses that observed them, including Governor Fife Symington of Arizona. Digging Deeper Believed by many to be some sort of UFO or alien related event, the phenomena consisted of 2 major manifestations, the first being a triangular series of lights moving across the night sky, and the second being stationary lights over Phoenix. The first group of moving lights, arrayed in…