A Brief History On January 22, 2009, only a couple days after being sworn in, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected terrorists were being held. Congress overrode the President, and Gitmo stayed open. Obama also suffered the failure to get universal national health care passed and had to settle for a watered-down version known as “Obamacare.” Digging Deeper Almost all presidents fail at certain projects and here we list a few: President Nixon, who promised “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but the North Vietnamese were not…
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A Brief History On January 21, 2009, Israel pulled its military forces out of the Gaza strip after a three-week war with Palestinian Islamic extremist group Hamas. While fighting in and around Gaza continued in the following weeks, the scale of the fighting was a mere shadow of the Israeli-Hamas fighting that began in October of 2023. Digging Deeper In what was called The Gaza War of 2008-2009, 13 Israelis and between 1,100 and 1,400 Palestinians were killed. Lasting from December 27, 2008 until January 18, 2009, the war was just one of many Arab-Israeli wars and other armed and…
A Brief History On January 15, 1943, the largest “office” building in the world was dedicated in Arlington County, Virginia, the Pentagon, a building that would become the symbol of the American military. Digging Deeper With five floors above ground and another two underground, the Pentagon boasts over 6.6 million square feet of floorspace. Not until 2023 would the Pentagon’s massive floorspace be eclipsed. Its 17.5 miles of corridors get busy foot traffic 24/7, with a workforce of 23,000 military and civilian defense workers plus another 3,000 non-defense workers. The center area is a five-acre courtyard! Built at great effort…
A Brief History On January 14, 1969, we were once again reminded how navies around the world manage to make mistakes that cost lives and even entire ships. This time, 28 lives were lost and 314 sailors injured, but the USS Enterprise, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was not lost. Digging Deeper We have commented on naval disasters we call “Naval Oops Moments,” and this time the problem was a Zuni rocket under a jet’s wing that blew up. The explosion destroyed that plane and caused a fire resulting in multiple explosions, destroying 15 jets and blowing holes in the deck.…
A Brief History On January 11, 1935, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California, one of her many aviation firsts. She was also the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and was a proponent of women in aviation, of which there have been many great ones, as listed below: Digging Deeper Jackie Cochran (1906-1980) was an aviation pioneer that held more aviation records during her life than any other pilot of either sex. The first woman to fly supersonic, she also helped organize female pilots for Britain and the US…