A Brief History On January 26, 1959, the California State Lands Commission posted Chain Island, a 41 acre island in Suisun Bay where the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River meet, for sale with a minimum acceptable bid of $5,226. Digging Deeper An island made much larger than naturally occurring by the dumping of tailings from hydraulic mining up the rivers over the years, California had long intended to “remove” the island by hauling away the dirt and rocks, for use as a source of possible mineral recovery. Alas, removal never happened, and the island sat there in the way…
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A Brief History On January 25, 2019, the people of Brumadinho, Brazil, found out how dam failure can be a catastrophe when a mining dam broke and 270 people were killed. The same mining company previously had a dam fail in 2015, at Mariana, Brazil, killing 19 people, far fewer than some other major dam failures. Digging Deeper In the US, the worst dam failure as far as human fatalities, was the South Fork Dam failure in Pennsylvania in 1889, an earthen dam overwhelmed by heavy rains that killed 2,208 people. This dam had failed before! Another US earthen dam…
A Brief History On January 24, 1935, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey, introduced the world to the convenience of beer in cans. Lucky for American servicemen, canned beer became popular in time for World War II, making transporting beer to thirsty troops a much easier task. Digging Deeper If you are wondering, soda pop did not appear in canned form until 1955 when Coke first made the leap and then in 1964 when RC Cola first canned their bubbly soda in aluminum cans, a further refinement of the beverage industry. As usual, the dates of these…
A Brief History On January 23, 1957, inventor Walter Morrison sold his plastic flying disc to the Wham-O company, which named the item “Frisbee” and has now sold over 100 million of the tossable toys! Digging Deeper The invention dates back to the 1930s when Morrison got the idea by throwing the lid to a popcorn can before graduating to cake pans. Now made of plastic and copied by numerous companies, the beauty of the Frisbee is in its simplicity, with no moving parts, no batteries, and low cost. After serving as a fighter pilot during World War II and…
A Brief History On January 22, 1984, Apple introduced their iconic home computer, the Macintosh, on a television ad during Super Bowl XVIII. The Mac is notable for being the first commercial computer to make popular use of the “mouse” and the “graphical user interface,” that is, using clickable icons instead of having to type text commands for many functions. Digging Deeper The Apple “1984” ad for the Macintosh is considered a groundbreaking ad that set a new standard for Super Bowl commercials. Super Bowl commercials have become an annual tradition for millions of people, either for the dramatic debut…