A Brief History On February 22, 2014, the Headlines trumpeted the success story of Marit Bjørgen of Norway as she won the 30 km freestyle cross-country skiing event at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, giving her her 10th Olympic medal. Digging Deeper Born in 1980, this remarkable athlete has so far won 6 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in the Winter Olympics of 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014.  Though she is tied with 2 other women for total number of Olympic medals, she has more Olympic gold medals than any other female athlete.  In addition…

A Brief History On February 21, 1973, the Israeli Defense Force sent American-built F-4 Phantoms to shoot down a Boeing 727 operated by Libyan Arab Airlines.  Flight 114 had taken off from Tripoli and was headed to Cairo when it got lost over Egypt due to weather and equipment malfunction.  Digging Deeper The two Phantoms intercepted the jet liner over the Sinai desert after it had strayed there from the Suez Canal.  The Sinai had been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.  The failure of Egypt to shoot missiles at the plane, and the seeming approach toward a secret Israeli nuclear (possibly bomb making?) facility exacerbated the situation, especially since…

A Brief History On February 20, 1952, Los Angeles-native Emmett Ashford became the first African-American umpire to work in integrated (mainly white) professional baseball when he left his Post Office job to work for the International Southwestern League. Digging Deeper Ashford then went on to umpire in other mostly white professional leagues, reaching his minor-league pinnacle as the Umpire-in-Chief of the Pacific Coast League, where he trained and directed all the umpires and mediated arguments over rules.  In 1966, Ashford became the first black major league umpire, officiating in the American League. Ashford worked as a major league umpire until 1970,…

A Brief History Quick! Give me the top ten things that could destroy your planet. Quick! Give me your top ten favorite foods. Admit it, you started to make a list. Top ten lists are extremely popular and permeate our media. How could we not come to adore them? There are top ten lists of Do It Yourself renovations, foods and apocalyptic countdowns on the television, the radio and the internet. Top ten lists are everywhere, we can no longer turn on a television without surfing past a top ten something. Our culture is fascinated by them. History and Headlines — A…

A Brief History On February 18, 1930, Elm Farm Ollie (Also known as “Nellie Jay,” “Sunnymede Ollie,” and “Sky Queen.” Say, why does a cow need aliases???) made aviation history as the first cow to fly in a fixed wing airplane.  Since non-fixed wing aircraft include either helicopters or autogyros, we wonder if any cows flew in those first.  Just saying… Digging Deeper Not only did Elm Farm Ollie make the first bovine flight, but she also became the first cow to be milked while flying in an airplane.  (Who seriously keeps track of this stuff?  The FAA, Federal Animal Aviation?) …