A Brief History On November 20, 1917, a combined Allied offensive (British and French) stepped off against the Germans at Cambrai, France (Nord Department). The use of massed armor in close coordination with artillery and infantry was an historic first, and set the pattern for future use of armored vehicles. Although tanks had been used during World War I prior to Cambrai, they were used in smaller numbers (as many as 60 at a time) and only in close contact with the infantry in a strictly infantry support role. The British employed nearly 500 of their latest model tanks in…
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A Brief History On November 18, 2018, just after the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I, we look back over the past almost 62 years to take a look at things we find commonplace today that did not exist when I was born (January 1957). We also look at things that were common then or in the past that no longer exist. As you can guess from the title of this article, we have examined these items, new and passé, a few times before. (See “Things That Did Not Exist (Or Were Different) on July 1,…
A Brief History On November 16, 1938, the psychedelic drug LSD was fist synthesized in Basel, Switzerland by scientist Albert Hofmann, a genius not to be confused with 1960’s American radical Abbie Hoffman. Hofmann was so smart he was declared the Greatest Living Genius by the Daily Telegraph Newspaper (tied for 1st place on the list of 100 geniuses with Tim Berners-Lee). Unfortunately, Hofmann’s invention of the manner to synthesize LSD gave the world a powerful drug with no particular good use, but plenty of potential for misuse. Sometimes things turn out that way, and today we examine 5 geniuses…
A Brief History On November 14, 1851, author Herman Melville published his greatest book, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Certainly the best known novel concerning whales or a whale, Moby-Dick has not only stood the test of time as a novel, but has also generated several movies and provided numerous cultural references. The first line of Moby-Dick, “Call me Ishmael” is one of the best known opening lines of any novel. Today, we explore four of the Greatest Stories about Whales. What stories would you add to the list? (Either real life or fiction.) See our previous article, “The Real Moby…
A Brief History On November 13, 1901, a British lifeboat crew answered the distress flares of a small ship in peril off the coast of Norfolk, England, only to suffer terrible hardships in attempting to launch their lifeboat from shore to go to the sailors in peril. So hazardous were the conditions, that the lifeboat ended up being turned over on top of the crewmen, causing 9 of the heroic rescuers to drown. Cases in which rescuers end up being killed or severely injured themselves are not at all rare, and today we will discuss a few such cases. Digging…