Browsing: September

A Brief History On September 7th, 1533, in what had to ironically have been one of the most disappointing births in history, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England made her grand entrance onto the world and political stage. Digging Deeper The first article of this series on the Six Wives of Henry VIII discussed the possibility that Catherine of Aragon might have lied about being a virgin at the time of her marriage to Henry.  This article focuses on the consequences of Anne Boleyn denying Henry sex and what might have happened had she not. By divorcing Catherine of…

A Brief History On September 7, 1942, the Consolidated B-32 Dominator strategic bomber made its first flight.  Only developed as a fallback in case the Boeing B-29 Superfortress was not successful, the B-32 could not hold its own, and only 118 were built.  Over the years, many weapons or weapons systems have proven themselves to be disappointments.  Here 10 of those are listed, in no particular order. (Please also see the similarly-themed History and Headlines articles: “10 Weapons and Weapons Systems that Flopped” and “10 Weapons That Never (Or Barely) Went into Service.”)  Can you think of any weapons that fall into these categories? Digging Deeper 10. Consolidated B-32 Dominator. As mentioned…

A Brief History On September 1, 1983, a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 scrambled to intercept an airplane that had violated Soviet airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula.  Suspecting the jet liner was actually a U.S. spy plane, the Soviet fighter fired 2 air-to-air missiles, easily shooting down the lumbering commercial airliner that was flying from New York City to Seoul, Korea via Anchorage, Alaska. Digging Deeper Soviet officials at first denied involvement in the shootdown.  Then they claimed the fighter had first called the airliner on the radio before firing warning shots with tracer ammunition.  Years later, when the Soviet Union dissolved, more complete information…

A Brief History On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, headed for the “New World” in America.  Many Americans are under the false impression that these were the first white settlers of North America, but this belief is historically incorrect!  The Pilgrims are often treated as the real founding fathers of the United States, despite the fact that Spanish explorers and some settlers had arrived one hundred years before them and in complete disregard of the Native Americans who had already been there for at least 10,000 years.  Even the English first settled Jamestown, Virginia more than a decade earlier.  Although historians usually know what…

A Brief History On September 5, 1960, Cassius Clay, a brash young man known as the “Louisville Lip,” won the Olympic Gold Medal for boxing in the light heavyweight division.  Clay would go on to fame and infamy as Muhammad Ali, a professional heavyweight boxing champ and one of sport’s all-time greats. Digging Deeper Of course, if you listen to Ali, he, himself, will tell you over and over again that he is “The Greatest.”  Modesty was never one of his virtues… Of course, he did not need to be modest, as he won, in addition to Olympic Gold, the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship…