A Brief History On May 16, 1957, 54 year old ex-lawman Eliot Ness, he of future television and movie fame as leader of the “Untouchables,” died nearly broke and so forgotten that the Chicago newspapers did not even run an obituary. Digging Deeper Ness was a native Chicagoan, born in 1903, and even attended The University of Chicago, graduating with a degree in economics in 1925.  Taking a job as a background investigator for a credit company, Ness became interested in Law Enforcement and went back to The University of Chicago where he got a Master’s Degree in Criminology, the…

A Brief History On May 15, 1941, the Gloster E.28/39 jet powered fighter prototype made its first flight. This first of the Allied jet powered aircraft would be further developed into the first operational Allied jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. The test aircraft could only make 338 mph, much slower than piston engine propeller driven fighters, but the Meteor was superb for its day when it was introduced in July of 1944, later variants capable of 600 mph. Although with limited combat experience, including no air to air combat (except against V-1 cruise missiles) the Meteor joined the War too…

A Brief History On May 14, 1878, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, was fittingly (in a way) the scene of the last known trial for the crime of witchcraft in the United States. Had people gone mad? Was there some sort of time warp? Were there ghosts from 1692 at work here? Digging Deeper Goofy as it sounds to us today, there are still plenty of people who believe in witches and witchcraft, and even the former Republican Vice Presidential nominee and erstwhile Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin can be seen on video being cleansed and protected from witchcraft by…

A Brief History On Saturday, May 13, 2017, the Ultimate Fighting Championship event they call UFC 211 (the 211th such event) took place in Dallas, Texas, and featured two major championship/title fights, for the men’s Heavyweight (265 pounds) Title and women’s Strawweight (115 pounds) Title.  Digging Deeper In both fights the reigning champions won and retained their titles in convincing fashion.  For the men, Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic of suburban Cleveland, Ohio pounded arch rival Junior dos Santos of Brazil into the mat, winning by knockout in the first round.  Dos Santos had previously beaten Miocic in December of 2014,…

A Brief History On May 13, 1958, Australian adventurer and master of WTF, Frederick Benjamin “Ben” Carlin completed a most unlikely circumnavigation of the Earth, accomplished over a 10 year period and in an amphibious vehicle, a World War II amphibious version of the American Jeep! Digging Deeper Carlin first attempted a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in his Ford GPA he fittingly named Half-Safe in 1947 (Should he have named it “Less Than Half-Safe?”), but suffered a few failures over the next couple years.  The successful crossing began in 1950, incredibly beyond even the cheeky nature of the attempt…