A Brief History On December 17, 1957, the United States successfully launched their first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The SM -65 Atlas became operational in September of 1959, closely following the Soviet R-7 Semyorka that had become operational in February of that year. Digging Deeper With the advent of these ICBMs, either the US or USSR could launch an unstoppable fleet of nuclear bombs at each other anywhere on the Earth. The stunning numbers of nuclear tipped missiles and nuclear warheads fielded by the two main Cold War powers included a maximum of 32,000 nuclear…
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A Brief History On October 31, 2011, a truly spooky fact became known when it was announced by the UN that the population of humans on the Earth had reached seven billion. When the author of this article was born, there were about 2.8 billion people on Earth, which seemed to be plenty! Digging Deeper Today, there are over eight billion humans running around our planet, depleting resources and polluting the air, land and water. Heck, why stop with just the Earth? We are also diminishing the ozone layer in the atmosphere and increasing greenhouse gases that create global warming…
A Brief History On October 27, 312, Emperor Constantine the Great of the Roman Empire on the eve of the Battle of Milvian Bridge is reported to have had a vision or dream of the Christian Cross, leading to his men fighting under the protection of the cross. Sure enough, Constantine beat his rival as Roman Emperor, Maxentius and won the battle, eventually turning the Roman Empire Christian. The date and whether or not the vision really happened has been argued. Digging Deeper Some other notable historic visions include: Visions of the Virgin Mary are numerous in Christian lore, most…
A Brief History On October 23, 4004 BC, the Earth experienced its first day, having been created by God at 6 pm the previous night, at least according to the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, James Ussher. Ussher apparently used the Bible to make his calculations of the date of the creation of the Earth around 1650. Digging Deeper In fact, another Biblical researcher, Englishman John Lightfoot, had a decade earlier made his own calculations placing the Earth’s birthday at 3929 BC. Which clergyman should Christians believe? Or should Christians believe modern scientists that claim the Earth…
A Brief History On October 22, 1910, a murderer named Hawley Crippen became the first person captured via the help of radio to be convicted of a crime. A sort of quack doctor, Crippen worked in homeopathic medicine in the US but was not allowed to practice medicine in England when he moved to London. Digging Deeper Authorities in Canada were alerted via radio that the fugitive was on board an ocean liner and Crippen was arrested on arrival in Canada, the first known instance of an arrest facilitated by radio. Other notable crime fighting firsts include: The first use…