A Brief History On June 1, 1939, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, a plane designed by the German aeronautical engineer Kurt Tank, made its first flight and would go on to bedevil the Allies throughout the rest of World War II. With upgrades throughout its service life, the “Butcher Bird” (or Shrike) as it was known due to its heavy firepower, would remain on the leading edge of piston-engine performance. Digging Deeper With its introduction to combat over the English Channel and France in 1941, the Fw 190 became an obvious game changer, requiring Allied designers to upgrade existing Spitfires and come up with…
Browsing: Society
Read More
A Brief History On May 27, 1998, Michael Fortier was fined $200,000 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn authorities about the conspiracy to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Fortier’s wife, Lori, was also named as an accomplice, but escaped prosecution and was given immunity in exchange for her testimony against bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Digging Deeper On April 19, 1995, Nichols and McVeigh carried out a domestic terrorist plot in which they blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma city by means of a rented truck filled with explosives, killing…
A Brief History On May 27, 2015, in a surprising move, the overwhelming Republican majority in the Nebraska State Legislature joined with Democrats to overturn the Governor’s veto of the bill making Nebraska the 19th state (plus Washington, DC) to outlaw the death penalty. Digging Deeper The vote was 30-19. The governor vowed to execute the 10 inmates still on death row. Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Should capital punishment be abolished? If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on…
A Brief History Last year, on May 23, 2014, we ran a list of 10 Favorite Guns of The Gangsters. This year, we offer the counterpart, and list some of the most popular weapons of Law Enforcement officials. A few decades ago, the list would have prominently featured revolvers such as the S&W Model 10 and the S&W Model 36, but time and fashion have changed things a bit. Most police agencies frown on rimfire calibers as less reliable than center fire, and calibers less than .32 ACP are just too anemic for anything other than last ditch panic weapons. …
A Brief History On May 18, 1953, 46-year-old Jackie Cochran, a world famous female racing pilot, while flying a Canadian Air Force F-86 Sabre over Rogers Dry Lake, California at a record speed of 652.3 mph, took the plane in a dive, causing the tell-tale “sonic boom,” thereby becoming the first woman to pilot an airplane at a supersonic speed. Not only was she the first woman to fly supersonic, in 1961, while piloting a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, she became the first woman to fly at Mach II (twice the speed of sound)!!! Digging Deeper Born in 1906 as Bessie Lee Pittman, Jackie Cochran,…