A Brief History On January 4, 1989, two Libyan pilots made the massive blunder of attempting to engage a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters over the Gulf of Sidra off the Libyan coast, with the entirely predictable result of both MiG-23 “Flogger” fighters being promptly shot down. Digging Deeper The Libyan fighter pilots would have done well to remember the previous incident over the Gulf of Sidra back in 1981, when two Libyan Su-22 “Fitter” fighters were shot down by a pair of USN Tomcats, another time enemy pilots made the mistake of attacking US naval aviators. As…
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A Brief History On January 3, 2002, an Israeli operation called “Noah’s Ark” resulted in the seizure of a ship load of munitions bound for Gaza to arm Palestinian militants. Digging Deeper The freighter, Karine A, had been purchased by the Palestinian Authority and renamed and crewed with Palestinian sailors, loaded with 50 tons of weapons, and sailed to the coast of the Gaza strip between Israel and Egypt, a territory set aside as a Palestinian homeland and home to over 2 million people. The purchase of the weapons had been arranged and facilitated by Iran and the Iran allied…
A Brief History On December 30, 2009, the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha diesel oil pipeline in Shaanxi, China, suffered a rupture and spilled about 40,000 gallons of fuel into the Wei River and on to the Yellow River. An environmental disaster, but at least nobody was killed. Digging Deeper Transporting oil, other liquids, and gasses that might be toxic or flammable is dangerous, regardless of the manner of transport. Trains, trucks, ships, and pipelines are susceptible to accidents, natural disasters, and sabotage, and have all suffered disasters. Some notable pipeline disasters include the LaSalle Heights, Quebec natural gas explosion in 1965 that left…
A Brief History On December 28, 1972, the last day for inductees to be sworn in to the US armed forces due to the draft, most induction centers were closed due to President Nixon declaring the day a National Day of Mourning due to the death of former President Truman. Finding their induction centers closed, 300 draftees were not able to be inducted, and since the next workday was in 1973, they were never inducted since the US had suspended the draft effective in 1973. Digging Deeper Military conscription, commonly known as “The Draft” has been controversial in the US…
A Brief History On December 27, 1935, Regina Jonas was ordained as the first female Rabbi in the Jewish faith. Born in Germany in 1902, she died during the Holocaust at Auschwitz in 1944, although her legacy lives on. Digging Deeper Women have made inroads to formerly forbidden jobs, but there are still many areas where the fairer sex has yet to achieve certain status. Some of those positions not yet achieved by a woman include President of the US, which is probably overdue considering over 60 countries have had a woman as head of state or head of government,…