A Brief History On August 4, 2020, one of the largest explosions of something not meant to be an explosive occurred in a warehouse in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate went up in an explosion that rivaled a small nuclear weapon. Digging Deeper A fire resulting from welding at the warehouse was the cause, and over 200 people died with an additional 7,000 injured, leaving a crater over 400 feet across and over 140 feet deep! Incredibly, 300,000 people were made homeless by the double blasts 30 seconds apart and homes 6 miles aways…
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A Brief History On July 31, 1715, one of those events that leads to dreams occurred, when a storm off the coast of Florida sank all 11 Spanish treasure ships heading to Spain from Cuba. Digging Deeper Carrying a load of mostly silver, the fleet has been dubbed, “The 1715 Plate Fleet,” using the Spanish word for silver, “plata.” About 1,500 sailors drowned in the catastrophe, although a few survived to tell the tale. Treasure wrecks spawn mighty efforts to find and recover the lost treasure, and the occasional washing up of some of the 1715 Fleet’s treasure on beaches…
A Brief History On July 28, 2018, Australian yacht skipper Wendy Tuck made sailing history by becoming the first female skipper to win the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Held every two years, this epic boat race is run by Clipper Ventures that supplies 11 identical yachts to skippers and crews to compete in since 1996, with only 2004 skipped. Digging Deeper A real test of skill and endurance, all participants are required to undergo a four-week training program before the race. The same year that Wendy Tuck made sailing history, British skipper Nikki Henderson became the youngest person…
A Brief History On July 26, 2016, engineer André Borschberg and psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, both from Switzerland, made history with their solar powered airplane, Solar Impulse, when they completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a solar powered fixed wing aircraft. Digging Deeper Solar Impulse was the second plane of that name, sometimes called Solar Impulse 2. A single seat monoplane with four electric motors each powering a propeller fed by electricity from photovoltaic cells on the wings, the plane is capable of cruising at 56 mph, slowing to 37 mph at night, with a max speed…
A Brief History On July 18, 1992, internet history was made when a photograph of the parody doo wop singing group, Les Horribles Cernettes, was posted on the World Wide Web, definitely the first WWW photo of a musical group and possibly the first photograph ever posted to the Web. Digging Deeper Calling themselves “the one and only High Energy Rock Band,” this female group was made up of employees of CERN, the European physics and nuclear research concern behind the Large Hadron Collider. The group was active from 1990 to 2012, and then resurrected for 2017 and 2020. As…