Category Archives: On This Day

Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic

Posted on April 15, 2018 by James| Comments Off on Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic
Titanic

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912

On April 15th, 1912, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City and sank, taking over 1500 lives with her.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Planes Trains and Automobiles

Anniversary of Apollo 13

Posted on April 11, 2018 by James| Comments Off on Anniversary of Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the Service Module (SM) upon which the Command Module (CM) depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.

The flight was commanded by James A. Lovell with John L. “Jack” Swigert as Command Module Pilot and Fred W. Haise as Lunar Module Pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for the original CM pilot Ken Mattingly, who was grounded by the flight surgeon after exposure to German measles.

Apollo 13: Lovell, Swigert, Haise

Apollo 13: Lovell, Swigert, Haise

Original crew photo. Left to right: Lovell, Mattingly, Haise

Original crew photo. Left to right: Lovell, Mattingly, Haise

This is the insignia of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.

This is the insignia of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission.

Posted in On This Day, Patriotic

In Remembrance – Space Shuttle Columbia & Crew

Posted on February 1, 2018 by James| Comments Off on In Remembrance – Space Shuttle Columbia & Crew

On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on its 28th mission; all seven crew members aboard perished.

Columbia Launch STS-107

Columbia launches on its final mission, STS-107.

Columbia STS-107 Crew

The crew of STS-107. L to R: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.

Columbia STS-107 Mission Patch

Columbia STS-107 Mission Patch.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles

In Remembrance – Space Shuttle Challenger & Crew

Posted on January 28, 2018 by James| Comments Off on In Remembrance – Space Shuttle Challenger & Crew

On January 28, 1986 at 11:39 EST, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff.  All seven astronauts on board were lost.

Challenger STS-51 at Launch

Challenger launches on its final mission, STS-51.

Challenger STS-51 Crew

The crew of STS-51. Front row, from left to right: Smith, Scobee, and McNair. Back row, from left to right: Onizuka, McAuliffe, Jarvis, and Resnik.

Challenger STS-51 Mission Patch

STS-51 mission patch.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles

Happy New Year

Posted on January 1, 2018 by James| Comments Off on Happy New Year

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day

First commercial movie screened

Posted on December 28, 2017 by James| Comments Off on First commercial movie screened

On December 28, 1895, the world’s first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. On December 28, the entrepreneurial siblings screened a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time.
Read more »

Posted in Gadgets, On This Day, The Big Screen

Pearl Harbor

Posted on December 7, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Pearl Harbor

Flag at half mast

My personal thanks for all of those who served, lived and died.

Read more »

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic

John F. Kennedy

Posted on November 22, 2017 by James| Comments Off on John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963)

The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC). John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, according to the conclusions of multiple government investigations, including the ten-month investigation of the Warren Commission of 1963-4 and the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) of 1976-9. This conclusion initially met with widespread support among the American public, but polls, since the original 1966 Gallup poll, show a majority of the public hold beliefs contrary to these findings. The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories (even the HSCA, based on disputed acoustical evidence, concluded that Oswald may have had unspecified co-conspirators), though these theories have not generally been accepted by mainstream historians and no single compelling alternative theory has emerged.

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic

Happy Birthday, ISS

Posted on November 20, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Happy Birthday, ISS

On November 20, 1998, the first segment of the ISS, the Zarya FGB, was launched into orbit on a Russian Proton rocket, and was followed two weeks later by the first of three ‘node’ modules, Unity, launched aboard STS-88.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Posted on November 10, 2017 by James| Comments Off on The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Edmund FitzgeraldThe SS Edmund Fitzgerald, May 1975.

SS Edmund Fitzgerald was a cargo ship that sank suddenly during a gale storm on November 10, 1975, while on Lake Superior. The ship went down without a distress signal in 530 feet (162 m) of water at 46°59.9′N 85°6.6′W, in Canadian waters about 17 miles (15 nm; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. All 29 members of the crew perished. Gordon Lightfoot‘s hit song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, helped make the incident the most famous marine disaster in the history of Great Lakes shipping.

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day

Welles scares nation

Posted on October 30, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Welles scares nation

orson_welles

On this day, October 30, in 1938, Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”—a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth.

Orson Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided to update H.G. Wells’ 19th-century science fiction novel War of the Worlds for national radio. Despite his age, Welles had been in radio for several years, most notably as the voice of “The Shadow” in the hit mystery program of the same name. “War of the Worlds” was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

Read more »

Posted in On This Day

Today…

Posted on October 29, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Today…

In 1886, the ticker-tape parade is invented in New York City when office workers spontaneously throw ticket tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty is dedicated.

In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of ’29 or Black Tuesday, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

In 1960, in Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

In 1969, the first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

In 1998, Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day

Happy Birthday, Charlie Daniels

Posted on October 28, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Charlie Daniels

Charles Edward Daniels is an American country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, and guitarist.

Charlie Daniels

Charles Daniels (October 28, 1936 – )

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, Music, On This Day

Anniversary of the sinking of the USS Johnston

Posted on October 25, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Anniversary of the sinking of the USS Johnston

USS Johnston (DD-557)

USS Johnston (DD-557) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston. The ship was most famous for its bold action in the Battle off Samar. The small “tincan” destroyer armed with nothing larger than 5 inch (127mm) guns and torpedoes would lead the attack of a handful of light ships which had inadvertently been left unprotected in the path of a massive Japanese fleet led by battleships and cruisers. The sacrifices of Johnston and her little escort carrier task unit “Taffy 3” helped stop Admiral Kurita’s powerful Center Force from attacking vulnerable U.S. landing forces, and inflicted greater losses than they suffered.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, Patriotic, Planes Trains and Automobiles

70th Anniversary of Yeager Breaking the Sound Barrier

Posted on October 14, 2017 by James| Comments Off on 70th Anniversary of Yeager Breaking the Sound Barrier

yeager_glamorous_glennis

U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.

For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.

Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general.

Posted in On This Day, Planes Trains and Automobiles

White Christmas

Posted on October 14, 2017 by James| Comments Off on White Christmas
White Christmas

The film was released in theaters October 14, 1954.

White Christmas is a 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye that featured the songs of Irving Berlin, including the titular White Christmas.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

October 06, 1866: First U.S. train robbery

Posted on October 6, 2017 by James| Comments Off on October 06, 1866: First U.S. train robbery

On this day in 1866, the Reno gang carries out the first robbery of a moving train in the U.S., making off with over $10,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi train in Jackson County, Indiana. Prior to this innovation in crime, holdups had taken place only on trains sitting at stations or freight yards.

Posted in On This Day

55th Anniversary of Dr. No

Posted on October 5, 2017 by James| Comments Off on 55th Anniversary of Dr. No

On October 5, 1962, the 1st James Bond film, Dr. No, premiered in London (it would arrive in the US the 8th of May of 1963).

Dr. No poster

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Big Screen

Anniversary of The Flintstones

Posted on September 30, 2017 by James| Comments Off on Anniversary of The Flintstones

The Flintstones

The Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966 on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man’s life with his family and his next door neighbor and best friend. It has since been re-released on both DVD and VHS.

Critics and fans alike agree that the show was an animated imitation of The Honeymooners with rock puns thrown in. William Hanna admitted that “At that time “The Honeymooners” was the most popular show on the air, and for my bill, it was the funniest show on the air. The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with “The Flintstones”… “The Honeymooners” was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept.” However Joseph Barbera disavowed these claims in a separate interview, stating that “I don’t remember mentioning “The Honeymooners” when I sold the show, but if people want to compare “The Flintstones” to “The Honeymooners,” then great. It’s a total compliment. “The Honeymooners” was one of the greatest shows ever written.” Its popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern-day concerns in the Stone Age setting

Posted in Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

September 30, 1954: USS Nautilus commissioned

Posted on September 30, 2017 by James| Comments Off on September 30, 1954: USS Nautilus commissioned

The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, is commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work on an atomic submarine. Regarded as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years ahead of schedule. In 1952, theNautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman, and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River at Groton, Connecticut. Commissioned on September 30, 1954, it first ran under nuclear power on the morning of January 17, 1955.

Posted in On This Day