A Brief History On June 17, 1940, the British passenger liner converted to wartime duty, the RMS Lancastria, was sunk off the coast of France by German Junkers Ju 88 bombers as she headed to England with military and civilian evacuees from mainland Europe. The death toll was massive, with 3,000 to 7,000 dead. Incredibly, 2,477 people survived the sinking, one of the largest number of survivors from any shipwreck ever. Digging Deeper Stories of ships sinking usually focus on the number of lives lost, but seldom are the number of survivors celebrated. Some instances of huge numbers of people…
Browsing: Science & Technology
Read More
A Brief History On June 15, 2022, Microsoft retired its iconic internet browser, Internet Explorer, in favor of its new system, Microsoft Edge. Browsing the internet has become a fact of daily life for almost everyone old enough to read and write, providing entertainment, information, trivia, communications, news, and what that odd looking bird you saw in your yard is. Digging Deeper While Microsoft is a giant in the computer industry, the most widely used browser is Google Chrome. Other innovations and features that make internet browsing rewarding include: Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia free to use and of incredible diversity…
A Brief History On June 13, 2018, Volkswagen was fined a whopping billion Euros by the EU in conjunction with an emissions tricking scheme hatched by VW to beat clean air requirements in Europe and the US. Digging Deeper The VW scandal, using special computer programs to falsify emissions testing of their turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines, is not unique among car companies’ efforts to bamboozle governments and consumers. Further investigation showed that other car companies had also cheated on diesel engine emissions, including Jeep, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat, Renault, and Fiat. Another extreme scandal, this time of a deadly…
A Brief History On June 10, 1947, the Swedish industrial powerhouse, Saab, produced their first automobile, becoming just another of the many failed automobile companies by 2016. Digging Deeper In 1989, the auto making portion of Saab branched off to become an independent company, the parent company, Saab, Saab AB, Saab-Scania, and now back to just Saab again, going through its own multi-identity versions. While the Saab branded cars were kind of quirky, they did have a decent reputation for quality and safety, not unlike their Swedish fellow car maker, Volvo. While the Saab name may no longer grace vehicles…
A Brief History On June 9, 1928, Australian Charles E. K. Smith completed the first flight across the Pacific Ocean, an enormous aviation first that is often overlooked. Digging Deeper Smith went to the USA, starting with buying his airplane there from a famed polar explorer. The Fokker F.VII was a monoplane boasting three engines, capable of carrying up to 10 people for 750 miles at a top speed of 130 mph. Named the Southern Cross, the Fokker was modified to carry extra fuel to make the flight from California to Hawaii and beyond. The next stop was Fiji after…