A Brief History On August 23, 1954, a pleasure cruise around the Mediterranean Sea carrying many of the crowned heads of Europe set sail from Marseille, France, a royalty only trip known as “The Cruise of Kings.” Digging Deeper The cruise was planned by the Greek monarchs, King Paul and Queen Frederica, with the idea that bringing many royals together could result in possible marital matchmaking. Royalty representing 25 current and former royal families were gathered for the 11-day cruise, but only a single match was generated, that between Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma. A…
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A Brief History On August 19, 2017, over 300,000 Atlantic Salmon being raised offshore in a pen escaped when the pen failed due to a lack of maintenance. Almost ready for harvest and sale, the Salmon are not native to the Pacific coast and present a danger of being an invasive species that could hurt native populations of Pacific Salmon. Digging Deeper Invasive species present an extreme ecological problem around the world, sometimes introduced on purpose, such as the common Carp, Pigeons, and Starlings, and other times completely by accident due to shipping, such as Zebra and Quagga Mussels, or…
A Brief History On August 15, 2013, a new carnivorous mammal was announced by the Smithsonian Institution, a two-pound animal resembling a racoon from the Andes in Columbia and Ecuador. Digging Deeper The Olinguito, dubbed Bassaricyon neblina in science talk, is the smallest member of the Procyonid family. Along with insects, the little guys also gobble some fruits and nectar. The first new carnivorous mammal found in the Americas in the last 35 years, the Olinguito is certainly not the last new animal discovery of our lifetime. In fact, The Science Museum of Virgina reports that 18,000 new species are…
A Brief History On August 14, 1948, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game began Beaver Drop, dropping Beavers by parachute into the central Idaho Chamberlain Basin. Digging Deeper Beavers were trapped live from Northwestern Idaho, the plan being to repopulate an area that once naturally held a Beaver population depleted by fur trapping. Also, Idaho residents in the Northwestern region had been complaining about Beavers wrecking their property and cropland. Merely reducing the population of Beavers in Northwest Idaho was dismissed as environmentally unsound, as well as the tremendous value of the Beavers in other Idaho habitats. In all,…
A Brief History On August 13, 1889, the coin operated pay phone was patented by William Gray of Connecticut. “It’s your dime” was a common phrase meaning “you make the call, you paid for it” and our greatest superhero, Superman, needed phone booths to change into his Superman suit. Not anymore! Digging Deeper Pay phones and phone booths used to be part of the American scene, as recently as the 1980s or the 1990s, but cell phones made them obsolete. Like the Marlboro Man, other bits of Americana largely disappeared, including: Coin operated kids’ rides outside the front of stores. …