A Brief History On May 21, 1924, a pair of well to do college students from the University of Chicago kidnapped and murdered a 14-year-old boy, just for the thrill of committing murder and getting away with it. They did not get away with it! Digging Deeper Richard Albert Loeb was the son of a wealthy lawyer that had been a vice president of Sears, a highly intelligent lad that skipped several grades in school, graduating from the University of Michigan at the age of 17. Despite his intellect, Richard was described as lazy and obsessed with crime and detective…
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A Brief History On May 20, 2017, the entire planet is obligated to celebrate World Whisky Day, and if you have any questions about the legitimacy of this holiday, understand that there is a web site dedicated to this particular day! Digging Deeper Whisky, spelled without the “e,” is what we call the distilled malt alcoholic beverage from Scotland. In the United States of America, we call similar stuff “whiskey” with the “e,” but either way, you could call it hooch, firewater, liquor, spirits, moonshine, rot gut, white lightning, acqua vitae (water of life) or mountain dew (not the soda…
A Brief History On May 19, 2017, the United States celebrates perhaps its most important holiday, National Pizza Party Day. Pizza has become such an integral part of American culture, that we choose to honor this day with interesting facts about our favorite food. Digging Deeper Pizza of course is of Italian origin, appearing first in records in the 10th Century. But wait! Tomatoes did not make it to Europe until after 1492 when Columbus first sailed to the New World, so whatever excuse for pizza Italy may have had, it was not what we would recognize as our favorite…
A Brief History On May 18, 1958, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter set the world speed record for an airplane by flying 1404.19 mph over a 15 mile course, at the same time becoming the first aircraft ever to hold both the world speed record and the world altitude record at the same time (91,243 feet on May 7, 1958). Digging Deeper An incredible plane in many ways, this little single jet engine powered interceptor went on to a production run of over 2500 planes and served with 15 different countries, until finally retired in 2004 (Italy). Designed as a Mach…
A Brief History On May 17, 1974, the Los Angeles Police Department engaged the radical Symbionese Liberation Army in one of the most famous gun fights in the history of the LAPD, a fight in which an incredible 9000 rounds of ammunition were expended! Digging Deeper The SLA was the radical group that had kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst and turned her into one of their minions. Led by an escaped African-American criminal, Donald DeFreeze, known to his members as “General Field Marshal Cinque” (and apparently the duped group members did not find this hilarious?), DeFreeze was in fact the only…