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…
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A Brief History On June 8, 1949, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by English writer Eric Blair, writing as George Orwell, was published, telling a story of a dystopian future where an intrusive government controls all, sees all, and wages never ending war. Digging Deeper Modeled after the regimes of the USSR under Stalin and Germany under Adolf Hitler, the novel terrified a generation about the dangers of big government and what the future might hold. Politicians and others often referred to the work in an effort to prevent the creep of government power. Some other novels that have shaped public…
A Brief History On June 7, 1975, Sony unleashed a new level of home entertainment on the world when they marketed their Betamax format of videocassette recorders and players. Despite being a superior system, Betamax was quickly eclipsed by the VHS format. Digging Deeper Despite having a pretty good run, videocassette technology is now obsolete, replaced by DVDs and various digital systems and streaming services. Technology that seems innovative and remarkable has a way of fading into the sunset, such as the laserdisc movies that became available in the late 1970s and also faded away. When musical CDs became available…
A Brief History On June 6, 2023, the Russian army blew up the Ukrainian Kakhovka Dam on the Dnieper River in Southern Ukraine. The dam was breached by the Russians in order to create an obstacle to an expected Ukrainian offensive. Sadly, 58 people were killed in the resultant flooding. Digging Deeper While dams sometimes fail without human help, during war time the destruction of dams is not an uncommon tactic. At other times, dams may be intentionally destroyed for environmental reasons or to prevent a potential accident with an old and or failing dam. An enormous dam removal project…
A Brief History On May 31, 2003, Air France retired their Concorde supersonic jet airliners after a career that started in 1976. Air France had a fleet of seven of the fast jets, while British Airways also fielded a fleet of seven. An additional six of the so called SSTs were made for non-commercial users. Digging Deeper The first supersonic airliner, the Concorde was costly to operate and to fly on. The only competition ever created was the Russian Tu-144, jokingly called the “Concordski.” The Russian version of supersonic airliner lasted from 1975 to 1978, although cargo versions remained in…