A Brief History On March 5, 1836, Samuel Colt formed Patent Arms Manufacturing, the forerunner of Colt’s Firearms Manufacturing Company which in turn became today’s Colt’s Manufacturing Company. (For a companion list for this article, please see our list of “The Top 10 Famous Pistols.”) Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the reason for the founding of this company was the invention and patenting of the revolver, a pistol with a revolving cylinder that can fire six times in rapid succession (originally five times, later changed to 6) compared to the single shot pistols of the time. Colt’s Paterson revolver,…
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A Brief History On March 4, 1918, the USS Cyclops kept a date with destiny! Digging Deeper Cyclops, a US Navy coal carrier (collier) heading to Baltimore with a load of manganese ore. The Cyclops had left from Rio De Janeiro on February 16, 1918 and was supposed to arrive in Baltimore on March 13, 1918. Mysteriously, she disappeared without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle and nothing of her or her crew has ever been found. Chalk it up to the Bermuda Triangle? Or was she sunk by a U-Boat? Well, no U-Boat ever reported such a sinking and…
A Brief History Earlier today, we covered the North Hollywood Bank Robbery of February 28, 1997. Therefore, it only seemed right that we also count down the top ten famous shootouts in history! Digging Deeper 10. John Dillinger gunned down outside a Chicago theater, 1934. Set up by The Woman in Red, was given no chance to shoot back. Having committed 24 bank robberies, two jail breaks, and four police station robberies, J. Edgar Hoover declared him Public Enemy #1. Cracked fact: Ambushed by Agent Melvin Purvis, the same agent that was in on the Pretty Boy Floyd shootout! 9.…
A Brief History On February 27, 2011, Frank Buckles died at 110 years old, just one of the many fascinating things about his life! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find our hero born in 1901 in Missouri into a family of farmers that already had a history of service to the country in the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars. When the U.S. entered World War I, Frank was eager to join the action and went to the nearest Marine Corps recruiting station where he was sent away for being too small. His 2nd choice, the Navy turned him away for flat…
A Brief History On February 22, 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt made good on his advice to “carry a big stick.” Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the “Great White Fleet,” 16 modern battleships of the U.S. Navy, along with various smaller craft, returning home. Roosevelt was determined to show the world that the United States was a power to be reckoned with and so had this fleet painted all white so that it would be instantly recognized. It was! On the pretext of a goodwill cruise, the Great White Fleet circled the globe to show friend and foe alike the power of…