A Brief History On December 30, 2024, we take a look back at the ones we lost this year, and instead of trying to amass a giant list of everyone and everything, we aim to keep this list limited to those of particular note, at least to us! Digging Deeper Former President Jimmy Carter, age 100, was a fine person who showed his true morals and values in the years since leaving the White House. Baseballer Rickey Henderson, age 65, Major League Baseball’s all-time base stealer, was probably the greatest lead off batter of all time. Richard Simmons, exercise and…
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A Brief History On December 26, 1776, George Washington led his Continental Army across the Delaware River to surprise and attack the German Hessians employed by the British, killing about 22 of the German mercenaries and capturing another 800 to 900 for the loss of only two Americans killed. In fact, the dead Americans died from the winter weather and not Hessian bullets! Digging Deeper Mercenaries, soldiers for hire usually from other lands, have been used throughout history, sometimes to great advantage but also many times leading to failure and defeat. While the French Foreign Legion is famous for its…
A Brief History On December 25, 1941, US Navy Admiral, later Fleet Admiral, Chester Nimitz arrived at the devastated Pearl Harbor Naval Base to take command of the US Pacific Fleet. Nimitz had been appointed Commander of the Pacific Fleet a week earlier and would go on to conduct an incredibly successful campaign across the vast reaches of the Pacific, overcoming great odds to defeat Imperial Japan and win the War in the Pacific. Digging Deeper Nimitz was also appointed as Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, leading all Allied war efforts against Japan. US Army General Douglas MacArthur, later…
A Brief History On December 24, 1971, a bolt of lightning took down a Lockheed 188A turboprop airliner over Peru, killing all but one of the 82 people aboard. Thunderstorms and lightning are just one of many ways Mother Nature discourages and even puts an end to manned flight by humans in airplanes. Digging Deeper Besides weather, birds have a long history of bringing down airplanes, including the famous “Miracle on the Hudson” event in 2009. Birds are so dangerous to airplanes, that many airports employ a variety of means to keep birds away from runways, from noisemakers and landscaping…
A Brief History On December 23, 2002, the first known air to air battle between a manned fighter plane and an unmanned aerial drone took place in the sky above Iraq, when an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter jet shot down an American General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. Digging Deeper Far from the manned fighter merely taking out the drone, the high technology dogfight was a real air to air combat, with the drone armed with and firing an air-to-air missile at the Iraqi fighter. Luckily for the Iraqi pilot, the drone’s Stinger missile was allegedly confused by the heat signature of the…