A Brief History On March 4, 2020, Nik Wallenda of the famous acrobat and daredevil family, became the first person to walk on a wire above the crater of the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. Not to be outdone, his wife, Erendira, performed an aerial routine above the smoking crater! Digging Deeper The Wallenda family is famous for many of their death-defying firsts, with Nik personally holding 11 Guinness World Records, including being the first to walk across Niagara Falls on a high wire. Other daredevils have achieved epic firsts, including: Annie Edson Taylor, the first to survive going over Niagara…
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A Brief History On March 1, 1954, the US conducted its highest yield nuclear weapon test ever, the Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll, a blast of 15 megatons, which created the largest ever radioactive contamination event in US history, mainly due to the atomized coral spread for miles spiked with lithium-7. Digging Deeper The Castle Bravo test gives us a pair of major trivia facts, while some other perhaps more fascinating trivia items include: Names, especially name changes and bizarre names, including Frank Zappa naming his kids Moon Unit and Dweezil. His other children had to settle for Ahmet…
A Brief History On February 26, 1909, the Palace Theatre in London, England, boasted the first public showing of color motion picture film, a product called Kinemacolor invented by English hypnotist and magician, George Albert Smith in 1906. Digging Deeper Smith’s invention had been demonstrated to professionals prior to the public display, and the process used red/orange and blue/green filters with regular black and white motion picture film to give the colorized effect. Kinemacolor was used commercially from 1909 until 1915, because a rival, William Friese-Greene, sued for a patent of a process he called Biocolour and won his case…
A Brief History On February 25, 1933, the USS Ranger was launched at Newport News, Virginia, as the first American aircraft carrier built for the purpose of carrying aircraft. Smaller than later aircraft carrier types, Ranger nonetheless operated effectively throughout World War II, providing important naval air power, mostly in the Atlantic. Digging Deeper The fourth US ship designated as an aircraft carrier, Ranger followed ships converted from a collier and the unfinished hulls of two battlecruisers. Lexington and Saratoga were more than 100 feet longer than Ranger, and Langley much smaller. Ranger was impressive for its day, 769 feet…
A Brief History On February 23, 1945, with World War II in Europe rapidly approaching its end, the RAF targeted the German town of Pforzheim in a massive bombing raid that killed almost a third of the residents and destroyed 83% of its buildings, including virtually its entire city center. The reason for leveling this German city? The jewelry and watch making industry located there! Digging Deeper The RAF sent 367 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers and 13 Mosquito medium bombers to lead the way, dropping the usual mix of high explosive and incendiary bombs to blow up and burn the…