Browsing: September 21

A Brief History On September 21, 2018, the new Comedy/Horror film, Assassination Nation, premiered across the United States.  They remembered to keep in the “horror,” but left out most of the “comedy,” and that is all right with us!  A thoroughly modern comment on human nature in the age of social media and computers, a group of suburban high school girls is the center of the drama created when an unknown hacker starts releasing everyone’s secret texts, emails, and downloads.  A “Purge” like scenario develops where bloodthirsty, offended, hypocritical citizens are out to avenge those people found to be engaged…

A Brief History On September 21, 1921, as many as 600 Germans learned of a new way to die when a silo in Oppau, Germany (part of modern-day Ludwigshafen, Germany), exploded with great force, injuring another 2,000 unfortunate workers.  As you probably know, silos are tower like cylindrical structures usually used to store foodstuffs such as grain and corn.  In this case, the silo in question was at a BASF plant and was used to store ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. Digging Deeper You may also be aware that ammonium nitrate can be used as a mixture with fuel oil…

A Brief History On September 21, 1964, the XB-70 Valkyrie made its maiden flight at Palmdale, California.  The world’s first Mach 3 bomber, the Valkyrie was designed to outrace Soviet interceptors and drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union with impunity.  As it turned out, this concept became obsolete before the Valkyrie could be produced, and therefore it was not produced, saving US taxpayers a ton of money.  On previous September 7th’s we ran articles 10 Underperforming Weapons, 5 More Underperforming Weapons and Another 5 Underperforming Weapons.  On May 15th we featured an article on 10 Weapons and Weapon Systems…

A Brief History On September 21, 1942, the first Boeing B-29 Superfortress made its first flight.  This sleek bomber would become the highest technology piston engine powered bomber of all time, as well as the mightiest bomber of World War II.  On top of that, it would also become the first nuclear bomber in history. Digging Deeper Needing a longer range bomber than the B-17 and B-24 “heavy” bombers already in service, especially in case Britain fell to the Nazi’s, American engineers feverishly worked on a new design that could fly farther and carry heavier loads than existing bombers.  The…

A Brief History On September 21, 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin triggered the Russian Constitutional Crisis of 1993 by throwing out the constitution and dissolving Parliament.  The resulting chaos included the worst riots and fighting seen in Moscow since the 1917 revolution. Digging Deeper Relations between Yeltsin and Parliament had been deteriorating for some time when Yeltsin decided to dissolve Parliament, although he did not have the power to do so according to the constitution.  In turn, Parliament declared Yeltsin’s decision null and void, impeached him and barricaded themselves within the parliament building known as the White House.  Both sides made…